[ GLSA 200602-11 ] OpenSSH, Dropbear: Insecure use of system() call

[GLSA]

Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Title: OpenSSH, Dropbear: Insecure use of system() call (GLSA 200602-11)
Severity: low
Exploitable: local
Date: February 20, 2006
Bug(s): #119232
ID: 200602-11

Synopsis

A flaw in OpenSSH and Dropbear allows local users to elevate their privileges via scp.

Background

OpenSSH is a free application suite consisting of server and clients that replace tools like telnet, rlogin, rcp and ftp with more secure versions offering additional functionality. Dropbear is an SSH server and client designed with a small memory footprint that includes OpenSSH scp code.

Affected Packages

Package: net-misc/openssh
Vulnerable: < 4.2_p1-r1
Unaffected: >= 4.2_p1-r1
Architectures: All supported architectures

Package: net-misc/dropbear
Vulnerable: < 0.47-r1
Unaffected: >= 0.47-r1
Architectures: All supported architectures


Description

To copy from a local filesystem to another local filesystem, scp constructs a command line using 'cp' which is then executed via system(). Josh Bressers discovered that special characters are not escaped by scp, but are simply passed to the shell.

Impact

By tricking other users or applications to use scp on maliciously crafted filenames, a local attacker user can execute arbitrary commands with the rights of the user running scp.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All OpenSSH users should upgrade to the latest version: