Ubuntu Security Notice USN-385-1
27th November, 2006
tar vulnerability
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
- Ubuntu 6.10
- Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
- Ubuntu 5.10
Details
Teemu Salmela discovered that tar still handled the deprecated
GNUTYPE_NAMES record type. This record type could be used to create
symlinks that would be followed while unpacking a tar archive. If a
user or an automated system were tricked into unpacking a specially
crafted tar file, arbitrary files could be overwritten with user
privileges.
Update instructions
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package version:
- Ubuntu 6.10:
- tar 1.15.91-2ubuntu0.3
- Ubuntu 6.06 LTS:
- tar 1.15.1-2ubuntu2.1
- Ubuntu 5.10:
- tar 1.15.1-2ubuntu0.2
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.