USN-5334-1: man-db vulnerability

17 March 2022

man-db could be made to overwrite file and directory permissions.

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Releases

Packages

  • man-db - on-line manual pager

Details

It was discovered that man-db incorrectly handled permission changing
operations in its daily cron job, and was therefore affected by a race
condition. An attacker could possibly use this issue to escalate privileges
and execute arbitrary code.

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 16.04

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

References