USN-2370-1: APT vulnerability

8 October 2014

APT could be made to overwrite files.

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Releases

Packages

  • apt - Advanced front-end for dpkg

Details

Guillem Jover discovered that APT incorrectly created a temporary file when
handling the changelog command. A local attacker could use this issue to
overwrite arbitrary files. In the default installation of Ubuntu, this
should be prevented by the kernel link restrictions.

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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.

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Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 14.04
Ubuntu 12.04

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

References

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Further reading