Ubuntu Security Notice USN-722-1
17th February, 2009
sudo vulnerability
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
- Ubuntu 8.10
- Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
Software description
- sudo
Details
Harald Koenig discovered that sudo did not correctly handle certain
privilege changes when handling groups. If a local attacker belonged
to a group included in a "RunAs" list in the /etc/sudoers file, that
user could gain root privileges. This was not an issue for the default
sudoers file shipped with Ubuntu.
Update instructions
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package version:
- Ubuntu 8.10:
- sudo 1.6.9p17-1ubuntu2.1
- Ubuntu 8.04 LTS:
- sudo 1.6.9p10-1ubuntu3.4
To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.
In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the
necessary changes.