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XFree86 vulnerable to buffer overflow via crafted font directory in 'fonts.alias' file

Vulnerability Note VU#820006

Original Release Date: 2004-12-07 | Last Revised: 2005-10-26

Overview

XFree86 contains a vulnerability in the parsing of the 'fonts.alias' file, which could be exploited by a local user to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

Description

XFree86 contains a flaw during the processing of the 'fonts.alias' file. XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System. The 'fonts.alias' file is used to map new names to existing fonts and must be placed in any directory of the font-path. When reading user input from the file it stores the user supplied data for the font directory in a fixed-length buffer. It fails to check the length of the user input, leading to a buffer overflow condition.

Impact

A local authenticated user may craft a 'fonts.alias' file to exploit this buffer overflow vulnerability, leading to execution of arbitrary code with root privileges. The local user must have privileges to write to one of the directories in the font-path to exploit this vulnerability.

Solution

Upgrade or Patch

This issue is resolved in XFree86 4.3.0.2. Upgrade or apply patches as specified by your vendor.

Vendor Information

820006
 

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References

Acknowledgements

This vulnerability was reported by Greg MacManus.

This document was written by Will Dormann.

Other Information

CVE IDs: CVE-2004-0083
Severity Metric: 9.62
Date Public: 2004-02-10
Date First Published: 2004-12-07
Date Last Updated: 2005-10-26 17:22 UTC
Document Revision: 24

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