USN-6756-1: less vulnerability

29 April 2024

less could be made run programs as your login if it opened a specially crafted file.

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Releases

Packages

  • less - pager program similar to more

Details

It was discovered that less mishandled newline characters in file names. If
a user or automated system were tricked into opening specially crafted
files, an attacker could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary
commands on the host.

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 24.04
Ubuntu 23.10
Ubuntu 22.04
Ubuntu 20.04
Ubuntu 18.04
Ubuntu 16.04
Ubuntu 14.04

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

References

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Further reading