USN-5378-3: XZ Utils vulnerability

13 April 2022

XZ Utils could be made to overwrite arbitrary files.

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Releases

Packages

  • xz-utils - XZ-format compression utilities

Details

USN-5378-2 fixed a vulnerability in XZ Utils. This update provides
the corresponding update for Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and 16.04 ESM.

Original advisory details:

Cleemy Desu Wayo discovered that Gzip incorrectly handled certain
filenames. If a user or automated system were tricked into performing zgrep
operations with specially crafted filenames, a remote attacker could
overwrite arbitrary files.

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
Ubuntu 14.04

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

References

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