[ GLSA 200502-13 ] Perl: Vulnerabilities in perl-suid wrapper

[Thierry Carrez <koon () gentoo org>]

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory                           GLSA 200502-13
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                                            http://security.gentoo.org/
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  Severity: High
     Title: Perl: Vulnerabilities in perl-suid wrapper
      Date: February 11, 2005
      Bugs: #80460
        ID: 200502-13

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Synopsis
========

Vulnerabilities leading to file overwriting and code execution with
elevated privileges have been discovered in the perl-suid wrapper.

Background
==========

Perl is a stable, cross-platform programming language created by Larry
Wall. The perl-suid wrapper allows the use of setuid perl scripts, i.e.
user-callable Perl scripts which have elevated privileges. This
function is enabled only if you have the perlsuid USE flag set.

Affected packages
=================

    -------------------------------------------------------------------
     Package        /  Vulnerable  /                        Unaffected
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
  1  dev-lang/perl     < 5.8.6-r3                          >= 5.8.6-r3
                                                          *>= 5.8.5-r4
                                                          *>= 5.8.4-r3
                                                          *>= 5.8.2-r3

Description
===========

perl-suid scripts honor the PERLIO_DEBUG environment variable and write
to that file with elevated privileges (CAN-2005-0155). Furthermore,
calling a perl-suid script with a very long path while PERLIO_DEBUG is
set could trigger a buffer overflow (CAN-2005-0156).

Impact
======

A local attacker could set the PERLIO_DEBUG environment variable and
call existing perl-suid scripts, resulting in file overwriting and
potentially the execution of arbitrary code with root privileges.

Workaround
==========

You are not vulnerable if you do not have the perlsuid USE flag set or
do not use perl-suid scripts.

Resolution
==========

All Perl users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose dev-lang/perl

References
==========

  [ 1 ] CAN-2005-0155
        http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2005-0155
  [ 2 ] CAN-2005-0156
        http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2005-0156

Availability
============

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at
the Gentoo Security Website:

  http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200502-13.xml

Concerns?
=========

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the
confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost
importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to
security () gentoo org or alternatively, you may file a bug at
http://bugs.gentoo.org.

License
=======

Copyright 2005 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text
belongs to its owner(s).

The contents of this document are licensed under the
Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

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