USN-359-1: Python vulnerability

6 October 2006

Python vulnerability

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Releases

Details

Benjamin C. Wiley Sittler discovered that Python's repr() function did
not properly handle UTF-32/UCS-4 strings. If an application uses
repr() on arbitrary untrusted data, this could be exploited to execute
arbitrary code with the privileges of the python application.

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Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 6.06
  • python2.4-minimal - 2.4.3-0ubuntu6
  • python2.3-dbg - 2.3.5-9ubuntu1.2
Ubuntu 5.10
  • python2.3 - 2.3.5-8ubuntu0.2
  • python2.4-minimal - 2.4.2-1ubuntu0.2
Ubuntu 5.04
  • python2.3 - 2.3.5-2ubuntu0.3
  • python2.4-minimal - 2.4.1-0ubuntu0.2

In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the
necessary changes.

References

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Further reading