USN-701-1: Thunderbird vulnerabilities

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-701-1

6th January, 2009

thunderbird vulnerabilities

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

  • Ubuntu 8.10
  • Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu 7.10

Software description

  • thunderbird

Details

Several flaws were discovered in the browser engine. If a user had Javascript
enabled, these problems could allow an attacker to crash Thunderbird and
possibly execute arbitrary code with user privileges. (CVE-2008-5500)

Boris Zbarsky discovered that the same-origin check in Thunderbird could be
bypassed by utilizing XBL-bindings. If a user had Javascript enabled, an
attacker could exploit this to read data from other domains. (CVE-2008-5503)

Marius Schilder discovered that Thunderbird did not properly handle redirects
to an outside domain when an XMLHttpRequest was made to a same-origin resource.
When Javascript is enabled, it's possible that sensitive information could be
revealed in the XMLHttpRequest response. (CVE-2008-5506)

Chris Evans discovered that Thunderbird did not properly protect a user's data
when accessing a same-domain Javascript URL that is redirected to an unparsable
Javascript off-site resource. If a user were tricked into opening a malicious
website and had Javascript enabled, an attacker may be able to steal a limited
amount of private data. (CVE-2008-5507)

Chip Salzenberg, Justin Schuh, Tom Cross, and Peter William discovered
Thunderbird did not properly parse URLs when processing certain control
characters. (CVE-2008-5508)

Kojima Hajime discovered that Thunderbird did not properly handle an escaped
null character. An attacker may be able to exploit this flaw to bypass script
sanitization. (CVE-2008-5510)

Several flaws were discovered in the Javascript engine. If a user were tricked
into opening a malicious website and had Javascript enabled, an attacker could
exploit this to execute arbitrary Javascript code within the context of another
website or with chrome privileges. (CVE-2008-5511, CVE-2008-5512)

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 8.10:
thunderbird 2.0.0.19+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS:
thunderbird 2.0.0.19+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1
Ubuntu 7.10:
thunderbird 2.0.0.19+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.7.10.1

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

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

References

CVE-2008-5500, CVE-2008-5503, CVE-2008-5506, CVE-2008-5507, CVE-2008-5508, CVE-2008-5510, CVE-2008-5511, CVE-2008-5512