USN-902-1: Pidgin vulnerabilities

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-902-1

22nd February, 2010

pidgin vulnerabilities

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

  • Ubuntu 9.10
  • Ubuntu 9.04
  • Ubuntu 8.10
  • Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

Software description

  • pidgin

Details

Fabian Yamaguchi discovered that Pidgin incorrectly validated all fields of
an incoming message in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could
send a specially crafted message and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a
denial of service. (CVE-2010-0277)

Sadrul Habib Chowdhury discovered that Pidgin incorrectly handled certain
nicknames in Finch group chat rooms. A remote attacker could use a
specially crafted nickname and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial
of service. (CVE-2010-0420)

Antti Hayrynen discovered that Pidgin incorrectly handled large numbers of
smileys. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted message and cause
Pidgin to become unresponsive, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2010-0423)

Update instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package version:

Ubuntu 9.10:
pidgin 1:2.6.2-1ubuntu7.2
Ubuntu 9.04:
pidgin 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu8.6
Ubuntu 8.10:
pidgin 1:2.5.2-0ubuntu1.7
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS:
pidgin 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.9

To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.

After a standard system upgrade you need to restart Pidgin to effect
the necessary changes.

References

CVE-2010-0277, CVE-2010-0420, CVE-2010-0423