Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1065-1
15th February, 2011
shadow vulnerability
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
- Ubuntu 10.10
- Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 9.10
Summary
Newline injection possible into /etc/passwd
Software description
- shadow - system login tools
Details
Kees Cook discovered that some shadow utilities did not correctly validate
user input. A local attacker could exploit this flaw to inject newlines into
the /etc/passwd file. If the system was configured to use NIS, this could
lead to existing NIS groups or users gaining or losing access to the system,
resulting in a denial of service or unauthorized access.
Update instructions
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package version:
- Ubuntu 10.10:
- passwd 1:4.1.4.2-1ubuntu3.2
- Ubuntu 10.04 LTS:
- passwd 1:4.1.4.2-1ubuntu2.2
- Ubuntu 9.10:
- passwd 1:4.1.4.1-1ubuntu2.2
To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.
In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.