USN-1142-1: GDM vulnerability

1 June 2011

GDM could be made to launch a browser and leak information about the system.

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Releases

Packages

  • gdm - GNOME Display Manager

Details

Henne Vogelsang discovered that under certain PolicyKit configurations, GDM
could be made to launch a browser. A local attacker could exploit this to
gain access to files with the privileges of the gdm user. PolicyKit is not
configured in this manner in Ubuntu by default.

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Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 11.04

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make
all the necessary changes.

References

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Further reading