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Security hole in termcap Print E-mail
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Posted by LinuxSecurity.com Team   
SuSE A buffer overflow has been found in libtermcap's tgetent() function. If a setuid root program uses this function, the user could execute arbitrary code. SuSE Linux 6.0, 6.1 and 6.2 are not affected, since the only program using libtermcap is bc. This program is not setuid root.
______________________________________________________________________________

                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:  termcap-2.0.8-x
        Date:     Tue Aug 24 20:08:11 CEST 1999
        Affected: all Linux distributions using libtermcap
______________________________________________________________________________

A security hole was discovered in the package mentioned above.
Please update as soon as possible or disable the service if you are using
this software on your SuSE Linux installation(s).

Other Linux distributions or operating systems might be affected as
well, please contact your vendor for information about this issue.

Please note, that that we provide this information on as "as-is" basis only.
There is no warranty whatsoever and no liability for any direct, indirect or
incidental damage arising from this information or the installation of
the update package.
_____________________________________________________________________________

1. Problem Description

  A buffer overflow has been found in libtermcap's tgetent() function.
  If a setuid root program uses this function, the user could execute
  arbitrary code. SuSE Linux 6.0, 6.1 and 6.2 are not affected, since
  the only program using libtermcap is bc. This program is not setuid
  root.

2. Impact

  If you install a third party product, which is setuid root and linked
  against libtermcap, a user could use this buffer overflow to gain root
  privileges by supplying his own termcap file.

3. Solution

  Updated the termcap package from our FTP server.
______________________________________________________________________________

Here are the md5 checksums of the upgrade packages, please verify these
before installing the new packages:

  8a66d699a86d656f56841b2c597a8ef9  termcap-2.0.8-80.alpha.rpm
  662c6bacad9e9eedfa9333afada4d338  termcap-2.0.8-80.i386.rpm   (6.1)
  1ccf4946caa99e0ffbed5fab6a0e768c  termcap-2.0.8-80.i386.rpm   (6.2)
______________________________________________________________________________

You will find the update on our ftp-Server:

  ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.1/a1/termcap.rpm
  ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.1/a1/termcap.rpm
  ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.2/a1/termcap.rpm

Webpage for patches:
        http://www.suse.de/patches/index.html

or try the following web pages for a list of mirrors:

        http://www.suse.de/ftp.html
        http://www.suse.com/ftp_new.html

______________________________________________________________________________
 
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