[ GLSA 200611-12 ] Ruby: Denial of Service vulnerability

[GLSA]

Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Title: Ruby: Denial of Service vulnerability (GLSA 200611-12)
Severity: normal
Exploitable: remote
Date: November 20, 2006
Updated: June 11, 2009
Bug(s): #153497
ID: 200611-12

Synopsis

The Ruby cgi.rb CGI library is vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack.

Background

Ruby is a dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity.

Affected Packages

Package: dev-lang/ruby
Vulnerable: < 1.8.5-r3
Unaffected: >= 1.8.5-r3
Architectures: All supported architectures


Description

Zed Shaw, Jeremy Kemper, and Jamis Buck of the Mongrel project reported that the CGI library shipped with Ruby is vulnerable to a remote Denial of Service by an unauthenticated user.

Impact

The vulnerability can be exploited by sending the cgi.rb library an HTTP request with multipart MIME encoding that contains a malformed MIME boundary specifier beginning with "-" instead of "--". Successful exploitation of the vulnerability causes the library to go into an infinite loop waiting for additional nonexistent input.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Ruby users should upgrade to the latest version: