USN-262-1: Ubuntu 5.10 installer password disclosure

13 March 2006

Ubuntu 5.10 installer password disclosure

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Releases

Details

Karl Øie discovered that the Ubuntu 5.10 installer failed to clean
passwords in the installer log files. Since these files were
world-readable, any local user could see the password of the first
user account, which has full sudo privileges by default.

The updated packages remove the passwords and additionally make the
log files readable only by root.

This does not affect the Ubuntu 4.10, 5.04, or the upcoming 6.04
installer. However, if you upgraded from Ubuntu 5.10 to the current
development version of Ubuntu 6.04 ('Dapper Drake'), please ensure
that you upgrade the passwd package to version 1:4.0.13-7ubuntu2 to
fix the installer log files.

Reduce your security exposure

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 5.10
  • passwd -
  • base-config -

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

References

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