USN-1016-1: libxml2 vulnerability

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1016-1

10th November, 2010

libxml2 vulnerability

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

  • Ubuntu 10.10
  • Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu 9.10
  • Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu 6.06 LTS

Summary

libxml2 could be made to crash or run programs as your login if it opened a specially crafted file.

Software description

  • libxml2 - GNOME XML library

Details

Bui Quang Minh discovered that libxml2 did not properly process XPath
namespaces and attributes. If an application using libxml2 opened a
specially crafted XML file, an attacker could cause a denial of service or
possibly execute code as the user invoking the program.

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 10.10:
libxml2 2.7.7.dfsg-4ubuntu0.1
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS:
libxml2 2.7.6.dfsg-1ubuntu1.1
Ubuntu 9.10:
libxml2 2.7.5.dfsg-1ubuntu1.2
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS:
libxml2 2.6.31.dfsg-2ubuntu1.5
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS:
libxml2 2.6.24.dfsg-1ubuntu1.6

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

After a standard system update you need to restart your session to make all
the necessary changes.

References

CVE-2010-4008