An introduction to Elliptic Curve Cryptography
March 8, 2006
This article was contributed by Jake Edge.
Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) has been gaining momentum as a replacement
for RSA public key cryptography largely based on its efficiency, but also
because the US National Security Agency (NSA) included
it, while excluding RSA, from its
Suite
B cryptography recommendations. Suite B is a set of algorithms that the
NSA recommends for use in protecting both classified and unclassified
US government information and systems.
Public key cryptography is the basis for tools like ssh as well as Secure
Sockets Layer (SSL) for encrypting web traffic.
For readers who would like more information, a nice introduction to
public key
cryptography and the
RSA algorithm can be found on
Wikipedia.
ECC is based on some very deep
math
involving elliptic curves in a finite field. It relies on the difficulty
of solving the Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem (ECDLP) in much
the same way that RSA depends on the difficulty of factoring the product
of two large primes. The best known method for solving
ECDLP is fully exponential, whereas the number field sieve (for factoring) is
sub-exponential. This allows ECC to use drastically smaller keys to provide
the equivalent security; a 160-bit ECC key is equivalent to a 1024-bit RSA key.
Smaller key sizes lead to faster processing, which is very interesting to
folks that are implementing encryption on small, mobile devices with limited
resources in terms of power, CPU and memory. It is also very desirable for
large web servers that will be handling many encrypted sessions. These are
the technical considerations driving adoption. The NSA's recommendation makes
it very attractive to companies that sell encryption products to the
government and many non-governmental entities will also want products
that implement ECC.
In order to use elliptic curves as part of a public key cryptosystem, both
parties must agree on a set of domain parameters that fully specify the curve
that is being used. Various groups, notably the US National Institute for
Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Standards for Efficient Cryptography
Group (SECG) have recommendations for the domain parameters to be used for
various key sizes. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) also has a
draft
specification for adding ECC to SSL/TLS.
Sun Microsystems has donated ECC code to OpenSSL and the Network Security
Services (NSS) library; this allows the Apache web server and Mozilla browsers
(and many other programs) to use ECC.
Unfortunately, as with RSA before its patent expired, the ECC landscape is
littered with patent claims; some of dubious enforceability due to prior
art. Sun claims patents on ECC technology, but has provided a "patent peace"
provision in its license that states that it will not enforce its patent
claims and asks that anyone holding patents associated with the code not
enforce them against Sun.
The wild card in the ECC patent arena seems to
be Certicom which claims a large number of ECC patents and has not made a
clear statement of its intentions with regard to open source implementations.
The NSA licensed Certicom's patents for $25 million to allow them and their
suppliers to use ECC, lending some credence to at least some of the
Certicom patents.
Other companies also have
patents on various
pieces of ECC technology.
As is often the case with patents, it is well nigh impossible to determine
what the patents cover and if an implementation infringes without going to
court. Ironically, the clearest description of what is and is not patented
is an RSA Laboratories
FAQ entry:
In all of these cases, it is the implementation technique that is patented,
not the prime or representation, and there are alternative, compatible
implementation techniques that are not covered by the patents.
Of course, this is not legal advice from RSA and may or may not be how it
is interpreted by the courts. We will all have to wait and see how it
plays out if one or more of the patent holders decides to sue.
[The author wishes to thank his employer,
Privacy Networks, for sending
him to the RSA 2006 conference which inspired this article.]
Comments (7 posted)
New vulnerabilities
bmv: integer overflow
| Package(s): | bmv |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-3278
|
| Created: | March 2, 2006 |
Updated: | March 8, 2006 |
| Description: |
The bmv PostScript viewer has an integer overflow vulnerability.
If a specially crafted PostScript file is read by bmv, it may be
possible to execute arbitrary code. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
flex: buffer overflow
| Package(s): | flex |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0459
|
| Created: | March 7, 2006 |
Updated: | March 28, 2006 |
| Description: |
Chris Moore discovered a buffer overflow in a particular class of
lexicographical scanners generated by flex. This could be exploited to
execute arbitrary code by processing specially crafted user-defined
input to an application that uses a flex scanner for parsing. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
freeciv: denial of service
| Package(s): | freeciv |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0047
|
| Created: | March 8, 2006 |
Updated: | March 16, 2006 |
| Description: |
The freeciv "civserver" application is susceptible to a denial of service vulnerability. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
initscripts: privilege escalation
| Package(s): | initscripts |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-3629
|
| Created: | March 7, 2006 |
Updated: | March 15, 2006 |
| Description: |
A bug was found in the way initscripts handled various environment
variables when the /sbin/service command is run. It is possible for a local
user with permissions to execute /sbin/service via sudo to execute
arbitrary commands as the 'root' user. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
irssi-text: denial of service
| Package(s): | irssi-text |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0458
|
| Created: | March 2, 2006 |
Updated: | March 8, 2006 |
| Description: |
irssi-text has a remote denial of service vulnerability that is caused
by incomplete verification of arguments by the DCC
ACCEPT command handler. A remote attacker can crash irssi and cause
a denial of service. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
kernel: multiple vulnerabilities
| Package(s): | kernel |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0741
CVE-2006-0555
|
| Created: | March 2, 2006 |
Updated: | March 23, 2006 |
| Description: |
The Linux kernel has multiple vulnerabilities including
a sanity check problem with sys_mbind that can lead to a local
denial of service, an ELF vulnerability that can crash
Intel EM64T systems and an NFS client panic problem that
can be triggered by direct I/O from a local user. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
Mozilla Thunderbird: remote code execution and DoS
| Package(s): | mozilla-thunderbird |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0884
|
| Created: | March 3, 2006 |
Updated: | May 4, 2006 |
| Description: |
The WYSIWYG rendering engine in Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.7 and earlier
allows user-complicit attackers to bypass javascript security settings and
obtain sensitive information or cause a crash via an e-mail containing a
javascript URI in the SRC attribute of an IFRAME tag, which is executed
when the user edits the e-mail. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (1 posted)
WordPress: SQL injection
| Package(s): | wordpress |
CVE #(s): | |
| Created: | March 6, 2006 |
Updated: | March 8, 2006 |
| Description: |
Patrik Karlsson reported that WordPress 1.5.2 makes use of an
insufficiently filtered User Agent string in SQL queries related to
comments posting. This vulnerability was already fixed in the 2.0-series
of WordPress. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
zoo: stack-based buffer overflow
| Package(s): | zoo |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0855
|
| Created: | March 7, 2006 |
Updated: | March 16, 2006 |
| Description: |
Stack-based buffer overflow in the fullpath function in misc.c for zoo 2.10
and earlier allows user-complicit attackers to execute arbitrary code via a
crafted ZOO file that causes the combine function to return a longer string
than expected. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
Updated vulnerabilities
ADOdb: PostgresSQL command injection
| Package(s): | adodb |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0410
|
| Created: | February 6, 2006 |
Updated: | April 17, 2006 |
| Description: |
Andy Staudacher discovered that ADOdb does not properly sanitize all
parameters. By sending specifically crafted requests to an application
that uses ADOdb and a PostgreSQL backend, an attacker might exploit the
flaw to execute arbitrary SQL queries on the host. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
apache: cross-site scripting
| Package(s): | apache |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-3352
|
| Created: | December 14, 2005 |
Updated: | May 10, 2006 |
| Description: |
Versions 1 and 2 of the apache web server suffer from a cross-site scripting vulnerability in the mod_imap module; see this bugzilla entry for details. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
blender: integer overflow
| Package(s): | blender |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-4470
|
| Created: | January 6, 2006 |
Updated: | June 15, 2006 |
| Description: |
Damian Put discovered that Blender did not properly validate a 'length'
value in .blend files. Negative values led to an insufficiently sized
memory allocation. By tricking a user into opening a specially crafted
.blend file, this could be exploited to execute arbitrary code with the
privileges of the Blender user. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
bluez-hcidump: buffer overflow
| Package(s): | bluez-hcidump |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0670
|
| Created: | February 17, 2006 |
Updated: | March 10, 2006 |
| Description: |
A buffer overflow in l2cap.c in hcidump allows remote attackers to cause a
denial of service (crash) through a wireless Bluetooth connection via a
malformed Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP) packet. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
BomberClone: remote execution of arbitrary code
| Package(s): | bomberclone |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0460
|
| Created: | February 17, 2006 |
Updated: | March 14, 2006 |
| Description: |
Stefan Cornelius of the Gentoo Security team discovered multiple
missing buffer checks in BomberClone's code. By sending overly long error
messages to the game via network, a remote attacker may exploit buffer
overflows to execute arbitrary code with the rights of the user running
BomberClone. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
bzip2: race condition and infinite loop
| Package(s): | bzip2 |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2005-0953
CAN-2005-1260
|
| Created: | May 17, 2005 |
Updated: | January 10, 2007 |
| Description: |
A race condition in bzip2 1.0.2 and earlier allows local users to modify
permissions of arbitrary files via a hard link attack on a file while it is
being decompressed, whose permissions are changed by bzip2 after the
decompression is complete. Also specially crafted bzip2 archives may cause
an infinite loop in the decompressor. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (2 posted)
ktools: buffer overflow
| Package(s): | centericq |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-3863
|
| Created: | December 7, 2005 |
Updated: | August 29, 2006 |
| Description: |
From the Debian-Testing alert: Mehdi Oudad "deepfear" and Kevin Fernandez "Siegfried" from the Zone-H
Research Team discovered a buffer overflow in kkstrtext.h of the ktools
library, which is included in (at least) centericq and motor. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
cpio: arbitrary code execution
| Package(s): | cpio |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-4268
|
| Created: | January 2, 2006 |
Updated: | May 8, 2007 |
| Description: |
Richard Harms discovered that cpio did not sufficiently validate file
properties when creating archives. Files with e. g. a very large size
caused a buffer overflow. By tricking a user or an automatic backup
system into putting a specially crafted file into a cpio archive, a
local attacker could probably exploit this to execute arbitrary code
with the privileges of the target user (which is likely root in an
automatic backup system). |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
curl: buffer overflow
| Package(s): | curl |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-4077
|
| Created: | December 8, 2005 |
Updated: | March 27, 2006 |
| Description: |
The curl file transfer utility has a buffer overflow vulnerability
in the URL authentication code. If an overly long URL is used,
a buffer overflow can result, allowing for local unauthorized access. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
cyrus-imapd: buffer overflows
| Package(s): | cyrus-imapd |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2005-0546
|
| Created: | February 23, 2005 |
Updated: | April 9, 2006 |
| Description: |
Cyrus-imapd, prior to version 2.2.12, contains several buffer overflows which could be exploited by an (authenticated) attacker to run code on the server system. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
dia: missing input sanitizing
| Package(s): | dia |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2005-2966
|
| Created: | October 4, 2005 |
Updated: | April 6, 2006 |
| Description: |
Joxean Koret discovered that the SVG import plugin did not properly
sanitize data read from an SVG file. By tricking an user into opening
a specially crafted SVG file, an attacker could exploit this to
execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
emacs21: format string vulnerability in "movemail"
| Package(s): | emacs21 |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2005-0100
|
| Created: | February 7, 2005 |
Updated: | May 15, 2006 |
| Description: |
Max Vozeler discovered a format string vulnerability in the "movemail"
utility of Emacs. By sending specially crafted packets, a malicious
POP3 server could cause a buffer overflow, which could be exploited to
execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user and the "mail"
group. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
enscript: arbitrary code execution
| Package(s): | enscript |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2004-1184
CAN-2004-1185
CAN-2004-1186
|
| Created: | January 21, 2005 |
Updated: | May 27, 2006 |
| Description: |
Erik Sjölund has discovered several security relevant problems in enscript,
a program to convert ASCII text into Postscript and other formats.
Unsanitized input can cause the execution of arbitrary commands via EPSF
pipe support. Due to missing sanitizing of filenames it is possible that a
specially crafted filename can cause arbitrary commands to be executed.
Multiple buffer overflows can cause the program to crash. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
evolution: format string issues
Comments (2 posted)
fetchmail: multidrop bug
| Package(s): | fetchmail |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-4348
|
| Created: | December 20, 2005 |
Updated: | May 27, 2006 |
| Description: |
Fetchmail contains a bug which allows a malicious mail server to crash the
client by sending a message without headers. This occurs when running in
multidrop mode. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
ffmpeg: buffer overflow
| Package(s): | ffmpeg |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-4048
|
| Created: | December 15, 2005 |
Updated: | March 17, 2006 |
| Description: |
The avcodec_default_get_buffer() function of the ffmpeg library
has a buffer overflow vulnerability. A user can be tricked into
playing a maliciously created PNG movie, allowing the attacker to
run arbitrary code with the user's privileges. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
Foomatic: Arbitrary command execution in foomatic-rip
| Package(s): | foomatic |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2004-0801
|
| Created: | September 20, 2004 |
Updated: | May 31, 2006 |
| Description: |
There is a vulnerability in the foomatic-filters package. This
vulnerability is due to insufficient checking of command-line parameters
and environment variables in the foomatic-rip filter. This vulnerability
may allow both local and remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands on
the print server with the permissions of the spooler. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
gdb: multiple vulnerabilities
| Package(s): | gdb |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2005-1704
CAN-2005-1705
|
| Created: | May 20, 2005 |
Updated: | August 11, 2006 |
| Description: |
Tavis Ormandy of the Gentoo Linux Security Audit Team discovered an integer
overflow in the BFD library, resulting in a heap overflow. A review also
showed that by default, gdb insecurely sources initialization files from
the working directory. Successful exploitation would result in the
execution of arbitrary code on loading a specially crafted object file or
the execution of arbitrary commands. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (5 posted)
gdk-pixbuf: multiple vulnerabilities
| Package(s): | gdk-pixbuf gtk2 |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-3186
CVE-2005-2976
CVE-2005-2975
|
| Created: | November 15, 2005 |
Updated: | March 20, 2006 |
| Description: |
The gdk-pixbuf package contains an image loading library used with the
GNOME GUI desktop environment. A bug was found in the way gdk-pixbuf
processes XPM images. An attacker could create a carefully crafted XPM file
in such a way that it could cause an application linked with gdk-pixbuf to
execute arbitrary code when the file was opened by a victim.
Ludwig Nussel discovered an integer overflow bug in the way gdk-pixbuf
processes XPM images. An attacker could create a carefully crafted XPM
file in such a way that it could cause an application linked with
gdk-pixbuf to execute arbitrary code or crash when the file was opened by a
victim.
Ludwig Nussel also discovered an infinite-loop denial of service bug in the
way gdk-pixbuf processes XPM images. An attacker could create a carefully
crafted XPM file in such a way that it could cause an application linked
with gdk-pixbuf to stop responding when the file was opened by a victim. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
gettext: Insecure temporary file handling
| Package(s): | gettext |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2004-0966
|
| Created: | October 11, 2004 |
Updated: | March 1, 2006 |
| Description: |
gettext insecurely creates temporary files in world-writeable directories
with predictable names. A local attacker could create symbolic links in
the temporary files directory, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the
filesystem. When gettext is called, this would result in file access with
the rights of the user running the utility, which could be the root user. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (1 posted)
gnupg: false positive signature verification
| Package(s): | gnupg |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0455
|
| Created: | February 17, 2006 |
Updated: | March 10, 2006 |
| Description: |
Tavis Ormandy noticed that gnupg, the GNU privacy guard - a free PGP
replacement, verifies external signatures of files successfully even
though they don't contain a signature at all. See this update from the gnuPG team for more
information. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (2 posted)
gnutls: denial of service
| Package(s): | gnutls |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0645
|
| Created: | February 13, 2006 |
Updated: | March 6, 2006 |
| Description: |
Several flaws were found in the way libtasn1 decodes DER. An attacker
could create a carefully crafted invalid X.509 certificate in such a way
that could trigger this flaw if parsed by an application that uses GNU TLS.
This could lead to a denial of service (application crash). It is not
certain if this issue could be escalated to allow arbitrary code execution. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
gzip: arbitrary command execution
| Package(s): | gzip |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2005-0758
|
| Created: | August 1, 2005 |
Updated: | January 9, 2007 |
| Description: |
zgrep in gzip before 1.3.5 does not handle shell metacharacters like '|'
and '&' properly when they occurred in input file names. This could be
exploited to execute arbitrary commands with user privileges if zgrep is
run in an untrusted directory with specially crafted file names. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (2 posted)
heimdal: privilege escalation
| Package(s): | heimdal |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0582
|
| Created: | February 13, 2006 |
Updated: | March 17, 2006 |
| Description: |
A privilege escalation flaw has been found in the heimdal rsh (remote
shell) server. This allowed an authenticated attacker to overwrite
arbitrary files and gain ownership of them. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
imagemagick: arbitrary command execution
| Package(s): | imagemagick |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-4601
CVE-2006-0082
|
| Created: | January 24, 2006 |
Updated: | March 24, 2006 |
| Description: |
Florian Weimer discovered that the delegate code did not correctly
handle file names which embed shell commands (CVE-2005-4601). Daniel
Kobras found a format string vulnerability in the SetImageInfo()
function (CVE-2006-0082). By tricking a user into processing an image
file with a specially crafted file name, these two vulnerabilities
could be exploited to execute arbitrary commands with the user's
privileges. These vulnerability become particularly critical if
malicious images are sent as email attachments and the email client
uses imagemagick to convert/display the images (e. g. Thunderbird and
Gnus). |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
imap: buffer overflow in c-client
| Package(s): | imap |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0297
|
| Created: | February 18, 2005 |
Updated: | April 9, 2006 |
| Description: |
A buffer overflow flaw was found in the c-client IMAP client. An attacker
could create a malicious IMAP server that if connected to by a victim could
execute arbitrary code on the client machine. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
ipsec-tools: denial of service
| Package(s): | ipsec-tools |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-3732
|
| Created: | December 1, 2005 |
Updated: | June 8, 2006 |
| Description: |
ipsec-tools has a remote
denial of service vulnerability in the racoon daemon.
If racoon is running in aggressive mode, it fails to check all peer
payloads during
When the daemon the IKE negotiation phase, allowing a malicious peer
to crash the daemon. One should always be careful around aggressive racoons. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
kdebase: local root vulnerability
| Package(s): | kdebase |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2005-2494
|
| Created: | September 7, 2005 |
Updated: | August 11, 2006 |
| Description: |
The kdebase package (and kcheckpass in particular) found in KDE versions 3.2.0 through 3.4.2 suffers from a lock file handling error which can enable a local attacker to obtain root access. See this advisory for details. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
kdelibs: heap overflow
| Package(s): | kdelibs |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0019
|
| Created: | January 19, 2006 |
Updated: | March 17, 2006 |
| Description: |
Konqueror's kjs JavaScript interpreter engine has a heap overflow
vulnerability. Specially crafted JavaScript code could be placed on
a web site, leading to arbitrary code execution.
Other kde applications are also subject to this vulnerability. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
kdelibs: kate backup file permission leak
| Package(s): | kdelibs kate kwrite |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2005-1920
|
| Created: | July 19, 2005 |
Updated: | November 27, 2006 |
| Description: |
Kate / Kwrite, as shipped with KDE 3.2.x up to including 3.4.0, creates a file backup before saving a modified file. These backup files are created with default permissions, even if the original file had more strict permissions set. See this advisory for more information. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
kernel: multiple vulnerabilities
Comments (none posted)
kernel: multiple vulnerabilities
| Package(s): | kernel |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-3356
CVE-2005-4605
CVE-2005-4618
CVE-2005-4639
CVE-2006-0095
CVE-2006-0096
|
| Created: | January 18, 2006 |
Updated: | March 7, 2006 |
| Description: |
The latest set of kernel vulnerabilities includes:
- A reference counting bug in sys_mq_open(), exploitable by a local user to crash the kernel. (CVE-2005-3356)
- A misuse of signed data types in /proc, potentially providing read access to random kernel memory. (CVE-2005-4605)
- An off-by-one error in sysctl(), with the potential for arbitrary code execution. (CVE-2005-4618)
- A buffer overflow in the TwinHan DST
Frontend/Card DVB driver; potential code execution. (CVE-2005-4639)
- A potential key disclosure in dm-crypt. (CVE-2006-0095)
- Missing capability check could (maybe) allow arbitrary users to load new firmware into SDLA WAN cards. (CVE-2006-0096)
|
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
kernel: multiple vulnerabilities
| Package(s): | kernel |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-2709
CVE-2005-2973
CVE-2005-3055
CVE-2005-3180
CVE-2005-3271
CVE-2005-3272
CVE-2005-3273
CVE-2005-3274
CVE-2005-3275
CVE-2005-3276
|
| Created: | November 22, 2005 |
Updated: | March 15, 2006 |
| Description: |
Al Viro discovered a race condition in the /proc file handler of
network devices. A local attacker could exploit this by opening any
file in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/<interface>/ and waiting until that
interface was shut down. Under certain circumstances this could lead
to a kernel crash or even arbitrary code execution with full kernel
privileges. (CVE-2005-2709)
Tetsuo Handa discovered a local Denial of Service vulnerability in the
udp_v6_get_port() function. On computers which use IPv6, a local
attacker could exploit this to trigger an infinite loop in the kernel.
(CVE-2005-2973)
Harald Welte discovered a Denial of Service vulnerability in the USB
devio driver. A local attacker could exploit this by sending an "USB
Request Block" (URB) and terminating the sending process before the
arrival of the answer, which left an invalid pointer and caused a
kernel crash. (CVE-2005-3055)
Pavel Roskin discovered an information leak in the Orinoco wireless
card driver. When increasing the buffer length for storing data, the
buffer was not padded with zeros, which exposed a random part of the
system memory to the user. (CVE-2005-3180)
A resource leak has been discovered in the handling of POSIX timers in
the exec() function. This could be exploited to a Denial of Service
attack by a group of local users. (CVE-2005-3271)
Stephen Hemminger discovered a weakness in the network bridge driver.
Packets which had already been dropped by the packet filter could
poison the forwarding table, which could be exploited to make the
bridge forward spoofed packages. (CVE-2005-3272)
David S. Miller discovered a buffer overflow in the rose_rt_ioctl()
function. By calling the function with a large "ngidis" argument, a
local attacker could cause a kernel crash. (CVE-2005-3273)
Neil Horman discovered a race condition in the connection timer
handling. This allowed a local attacker to set up an expiration
handler which modified the connection list while the list still being
traversed, which could result in a kernel crash. This vulnerability
only affects multiprocessor (SMP) systems. (CVE-2005-3274)
Patrick McHardy noticed a logic error in the network address
translation (NAT) connection tracker. A remote attacker could exploit
this by causing two packets for the same protocol to be NATed at the
same time, which resulted in a kernel crash. (CVE-2005-3275)
Paolo Giarrusso discovered an information leak in the
sys_get_thread_area(). The returned structure was not properly
cleared, which exposed a small amount of kernel memory to userspace
programs. This could possibly expose confidential data.
(CVE-2005-3276) |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (2 posted)
kernel multiple vulnerabilities
| Package(s): | kernel |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2005-3527
CVE-2005-3783
CVE-2005-3784
CVE-2005-3805
CVE-2005-3806
CVE-2005-3808
|
| Created: | January 20, 2006 |
Updated: | April 18, 2006 |
| Description: |
Here's another set of vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel:
- A race condition in the 2.6 kernel could allow a local user to cause a
DoS by triggering a core dump in one thread while another thread has a
pending SIGSTOP (CVE-2005-3527).
- The ptrace functionality in 2.6 kernels prior to 2.6.14.2, using
CLONE_THREAD, does not use the thread group ID to check whether it is
attaching to itself, which could allow local users to cause a DoS
(CVE-2005-3783).
- The auto-reap child process in 2.6 kernels prior to 2.6.15 include
processes with ptrace attached, which leads to a dangling ptrace
reference and allows local users to cause a crash (CVE-2005-3784).
- A locking problem in the POSIX timer cleanup handling on exit on
kernels 2.6.10 to 2.6.14 when running on SMP systems, allows a local
user to cause a deadlock involving process CPU timers (CVE-2005-3805).
- The IPv6 flowlabel handling code in 2.4 and 2.6 kernels prior to
2.4.32 and 2.6.14 modifies the wrong variable in certain circumstances,
which allows local users to corrupt kernel memory or cause a crash by
triggering a free of non-allocated memory (CVE-2005-3806).
- An integer overflow in 2.6.14 and earlier could allow a local user to
cause a hang via 64-bit mmap calls that are not properly handled on a
32-bit system (CVE-2005-3808).
|
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
xpdf heap based buffer overflow
| Package(s): | kpdf xpdf kdegraphics poppler |
CVE #(s): | CVE-2006-0301
|
| Created: | February 3, 2006 |
Updated: | March 17, 2006 |
| Description: |
Another heap based buffer overflow has been
found in xpdf and other programs that share the same code. This one is
in Splash.cc and it can cause crashes and possibly arbitrary code execution. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
libdbi-perl: insecure temporary file
| Package(s): | libdbi-perl |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2005-0077
|
| Created: | January 25, 2005 |
Updated: | March 2, 2006 |
| Description: |
Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña from the Debian Security Audit Project
discovered that the DBI library, the Perl5 database interface, creates
a temporary PID file in an insecure manner. This can be exploited by a
malicious user to overwrite arbitrary files owned by the person
executing the parts of the library. |
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
libgadu: memory alignment bug
| Package(s): | libgadu |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2005-2370
|
| Created: | July 29, 2005 |
Updated: | June 25, 2007 |
| Description: |
Szymon Zygmunt and Michal Bartoszkiewicz discovered a memory alignment
error in libgadu (from ekg, console Gadu Gadu client, an instant
messaging program) which is included in gaim, a multi-protocol instant
messaging client, as well. This can not be exploited on the x86
architecture but on others, e.g. on Sparc and lead to a bus error,
in other words a denial of service.
|
| Alerts: |
|
Comments (none posted)
libgd2: buffer overflows in PNG handling
| Package(s): | libgd2 |
CVE #(s): | CAN-2004-0990
CAN-2004-0941
|
| Created: | October 29, 2004 |
Updated: | June 28, 2006 |
| Description: |
Several buffer overflows have been discovered in libgd's PNG handling
functions.
If an attacker tricked a user into loading a malicious PNG image, they
could leverage this into executing arbitrary code in the context of
the user opening image. Most importantly, this library is commonly
used in PHP. One possible target would be a PHP driven photo website
that lets users upload images. Therefore this vulnerability might lead
to privilege escalation to a web server's privileges.
Multiple buffer overflows in the gd graphics library (libgd) 2.0.21 and
earlier may allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via malformed
image files that trigger the overflows due to improper calls to the
gdMalloc function. |
| Alerts: |
|
