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Linux Advisory Watch: December 31st 2004
Source: LinuxSecurity.com Contributors - Posted by Benjamin D. Thomas
Happy New Year! This week advisories were released for netpbm, libtiff, imlib,
Xpdf,CUPS, and ViewCVS. The distributors include Conectiva, Debian, Gentoo,
and Mandrake.
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A 2005 Linux Security Resolution
Year 2000, the coming of the new millennium, brought us great joy
and celebration, but also brought great fear. Some believed it
would result in full-scale computer meltdown, leaving Earth as a
nuclear wasteland. Others predicted minor glitches leading only to
inconvenience. The following years (2001-2004) have been tainted
with the threat of terrorism worldwide. Whether it be physical
terrorism, or malicious acts of information security, we have all
raised our level of awareness. For many across the world, the new
year brings a sense of rebirth and recommitment. All of us take
time to reflect on the past year, reexamine our lives, and focus
on how we can do better the upcoming year. Some have career related
goals, others only wish to make more time for their family because
of the realization that those close to you are in fact the real
and only reason for everything. Personally, I am one who loves
to set goals. Without a mission and plan, very little gets
accomplished. The new year should not only be a time to set
personal goals such as an exercise regiment, but also a time to
focus on security practices and configurations. 2005 will be
hostile, now is the time to prepare.
Reflect on Present
Those of us long-time security gurus always chant the mantra
"security is a process, not a product; repeat." The new year
should be a time to refine that process. Take a moment to analyze
and ask the following questions:
Are we doing everything the way we should?
What areas of our operation need to be improved?
Are we following security best practices?
Do I feel confident about our security practices?
Do I have metrics to provide assurance about our security?
Are we proactive, or do we always seem to be catching up?
State
of Linux Security 2004 - In 2004, security continued to be a major
concern. The beginning of the year was plagued with several kernel flaws and
Linux vendor advisories continue to be released at an ever-increasing rate.
This year, we have seen the reports touting Window's security superiority, only
to be debunked by other security experts immediately after release. Also, Guardian
Digital launched the new LinuxSecurity.com, users continue to be targeted by
automated attacks, and the need for security awareness and education continues
to rise.
Users
Respond with Constructive Feedback - When the new version of LinuxSecurity.com
was launched on December 1st, we also asked our readers to " Tell us what
you think ." You have spoken, and we appreciate that! We received hundreds
of comments & requests, and have been addressing a majority of them. We
thought it was important to share some of the comments with you. While some
were purely positive acknowledgements, others were thoughtful criticisms. We
take every critique into account and address each as resources become available
or when the criticism becomes the concern of many.
Vincenzo
Ciaglia Speaks Security 2004- Vincenzo Ciaglia
of Linux Netwosix talks about this year of Linux Security. A full immersion
in the world of Linux Security from many sides and points of view.
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Take advantage of our Linux Security discussion
list! This mailing list is for general security-related questions and comments.
To subscribe send an e-mail to security-discuss-request@linuxsecurity.com
with "subscribe" as the subject.
Thank you for reading the LinuxSecurity.com
weekly security newsletter. The purpose of this document is to provide our readers
with a quick summary of each week's most relevant Linux security headline.
Utilities provided by the netpbm package prior to the 9.25 version
contain defects[2] in temporary file handling. They create temporary
files with predictable names without checking if the target file already
exists.
"infamous41md" discovered a problem in libtiff, the Tag Image File
Format library for processing TIFF graphics files. Upon reading a TIFF
file it is possible to allocate a zero sized buffer and write to it
which would lead to the execution of arbitrary code.
Pavel Kankovsky discovered that several overflows found in the libXpm
library were also present in imlib, an imaging library for X and X11.
An attacker could create a carefully crafted image file in such a way
that it could cause an application linked with imlib to execute arbitrary
code when the file was opened by a victim.
New integer overflows were discovered in Xpdf, potentially resulting
in the execution of arbitrary code. GPdf includes Xpdf code and therefore
is vulnerable to the same issues. http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/117690
Remote exploitation of an integer overflow vulnerability in the smbd
daemon included in Samba 2.0.x, Samba 2.2.x, and Samba 3.0.x prior to
and including 3.0.9 could allow an attacker to cause controllable heap
corruption, leading to execution of arbitrary commands with root privileges.
