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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200512-18

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                                        http://security.gentoo.org/

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Severity: Normal
Title: XnView: Privilege escalation
Date: December 30, 2005
Bugs: #117063
ID: 200512-18

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Synopsis

XnView may search for shared libraries in an untrusted location,
potentially allowing local users to execute arbitrary code with the
privileges of another user.

Background

XnView is an efficient multimedia viewer, browser and converter,
distributed free for non-commercial use.

Affected packages

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 Package          /  Vulnerable  /                      Unaffected
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1 x11-misc/xnview < 1.70-r1 >= 1.70-r1
-------------------------------------------------------------------
# Package 1 only applies to x86 users.

Description

Krzysiek Pawlik of Gentoo Linux discovered that the XnView package for
IA32 used the DT_RPATH field insecurely, causing the dynamic loader to
search for shared libraries in potentially untrusted directories.

Impact

A local attacker could create a malicious shared object that would be
loaded and executed when a user attempted to use an XnView utility.
This would allow a malicious user to effectively hijack XnView and
execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the
program.

Workaround

The system administrator may use the chrpath utility to remove the
DT_RPATH field from the XnView utilities:

# emerge app-admin/chrpath
# chrpath --delete /opt/bin/nconvert /opt/bin/nview /opt/bin/xnview

Resolution

All XnView users on the x86 platform should upgrade to the latest
version:

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=x11-misc/xnview-1.70-r1"

Availability

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

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200512-18.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
[email protected] 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