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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory                           GLSA 200909-01
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                                            http://security.gentoo.org/
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  Severity: Normal
     Title: Linux-PAM: Privilege escalation
      Date: September 07, 2009
      Bugs: #261512
        ID: 200909-01

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Synopsis
========

An error in the handling of user names of Linux-PAM might allow remote
attackers to cause a Denial of Service or escalate privileges.

Background
==========

Linux-PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) is an architecture
allowing the separation of the development of privilege granting
software from the development of secure and appropriate authentication
schemes.

Affected packages
=================

    -------------------------------------------------------------------
     Package       /  Vulnerable  /                         Unaffected
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
  1  sys-libs/pam       < 1.0.4                               >= 1.0.4

Description
===========

Marcus Granado repoted that Linux-PAM does not properly handle user
names that contain Unicode characters. This is related to integer
signedness errors in the pam_StrTok() function in libpam/pam_misc.c.

Impact
======

A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a Denial of
Service. A remote authenticated attacker could exploit this
vulnerability to log in to a system with the account of a user that has
a similar user name, but with non-ASCII characters.

Workaround
==========

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution
==========

All Linux-PAM users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose =sys-libs/pam-1.0.4

References
==========

  [ 1 ] CVE-2009-0887
        http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-0887

Availability
============

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at
the Gentoo Security Website:

  http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200909-01.xml

Concerns?
=========

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the
confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost
importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to
security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at
https://bugs.gentoo.org.

License
=======

Copyright 2009 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text
belongs to its owner(s).

The contents of this document are licensed under the
Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5