USN-154-1: vim vulnerability

Releases

• Ubuntu 5.04
• Ubuntu 4.10

Details

Georgi Guninski discovered that it was possible to construct Vim
modelines that execute arbitrary shell commands by wrapping them in
glob() or expand() function calls. If an attacker tricked an user to
open a file with a specially crafted modeline, he could exploit this
to execute arbitrary commands with the user's privileges.

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 5.04

• vim-tcl -
• kvim-perl -
• vim-gnome -
• kvim-tcl -
• vim-lesstif -
• vim-gtk -
• kvim -
• vim -
• vim-python -
• kvim-python -
• vim-perl -

Ubuntu 4.10

• vim-tcl -
• kvim-perl -
• vim-gnome -
• kvim-tcl -
• vim-lesstif -
• vim-gtk -
• kvim -
• vim -
• vim-python -
• kvim-python -
• vim-perl -

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

References

• http://www.guninski.com/where_do_you_want_billg_to_go_today_5.html