USN-1191-1: libXfont vulnerability

15 August 2011

libXfont could be made to run programs as an administrator if it opened a specially crafted file.

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

Releases

Packages

  • libxfont - X11 font rasterisation library

Details

Tomas Hoger discovered that libXfont incorrectly handled certain malformed
compressed fonts. An attacker could use a specially crafted font file to
cause libXfont to crash, or possibly execute arbitrary code in order to
gain privileges.

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 11.04
Ubuntu 10.10
Ubuntu 10.04

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

References

Join the discussion

Need help with your security needs?

Ubuntu Pro provides up to ten-year security coverage for over 23,000 open-source packages within the Ubuntu Main and Universe repositories.

Talk to an expert to find out what would work best for you

Further reading