Ubuntu Security Notice USN-732-1
10th March, 2009
dash vulnerability
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
- Ubuntu 8.10
- Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
Software description
- dash
Details
Wolfgang M. Reimer discovered that dash, when invoked as a login shell, would
source .profile files from the current directory. Local users may be able to
bypass security restrictions and gain root privileges by placing specially
crafted .profile files where they might get sourced by other dash users.
Update instructions
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package version:
- Ubuntu 8.10:
- dash 0.5.4-9ubuntu1.1
- Ubuntu 8.04 LTS:
- dash 0.5.4-8ubuntu1.1
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.