Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1351-1
31st January, 2012
accountsservice vulnerability
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
- Ubuntu 11.10
Summary
AccountsService could be made to overwrite files as the administrator.
Software description
- accountsservice - query and manipulate user account information
Details
Hayawardh Vijayakumar discovered that AccountsService incorrectly handled
privileges when modifying the language settings on Ubuntu. A local attacker
could exploit this issue to modify arbitrary files, and possibly create a
denial of service or obtain increased privileges.
Update instructions
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package version:
- Ubuntu 11.10:
- accountsservice 0.6.14-1git1ubuntu1.1
To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.
After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make
all the necessary changes.