USN-1065-1: shadow vulnerability

Releases

• Ubuntu 10.10
• Ubuntu 10.04
• Ubuntu 9.10

Packages

• shadow - system login tools

Details

Kees Cook discovered that some shadow utilities did not correctly validate
user input. A local attacker could exploit this flaw to inject newlines into
the /etc/passwd file. If the system was configured to use NIS, this could
lead to existing NIS groups or users gaining or losing access to the system,
resulting in a denial of service or unauthorized access.

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 9.10

• passwd - 1:4.1.4.1-1ubuntu2.2

Ubuntu 10.10

• passwd - 1:4.1.4.2-1ubuntu3.2

Ubuntu 10.04

• passwd - 1:4.1.4.2-1ubuntu2.2

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

References

• CVE-2011-0721