USN-505-1: vim vulnerability

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-505-1

28th August, 2007

vim vulnerability

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

  • Ubuntu 7.04
  • Ubuntu 6.10
  • Ubuntu 6.06 LTS

Software description

  • vim

Details

Ulf Harnhammar discovered that vim does not properly sanitise the
"helptags_one()" function when running the "helptags" command.
By tricking a user into running a crafted help file, a remote attacker
could execute arbitrary code with the user's privileges.

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 7.04:
vim 1:7.0-164+1ubuntu7.2
Ubuntu 6.10:
vim 1:7.0-035+1ubuntu5.2
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS:
vim 1:6.4-006+2ubuntu6.1

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.

References

CVE-2007-2953