REDHAT-BUG-2533606: Medium severity vulnerability
A flaw was found in GNOME Shell's remote search integration. When rendering an icon supplied by a remote search provider over D-Bus, the icon's declared width, height, and row stride are passed to Shell.utilcreatepixbuffromdata() without validating that this geometry is consistent with the actual size of the supplied data buffer. A malicious or compromised search provider can advertise icon dimensions larger than its actual buffer, causing GNOME Shell to read past the end of the buffer when constructing the pixbuf for display. This out-of-bounds read can crash the GNOME Shell process, disrupting the user's session, and could potentially expose adjacent heap memory contents through the rendered icon.
Affected Software
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can exploit this issue?
An attacker would need to control or compromise a remote search provider that supplies icons to GNOME Shell over D-Bus. The affected path is the rendering of icons returned by that provider.
What is the likely impact on an affected system?
Malformed icon geometry can cause GNOME Shell to read beyond the supplied icon buffer. This can crash the GNOME Shell process and disrupt the user's session; adjacent heap memory contents could potentially be exposed through the rendered icon.
How can administrators identify exposure?
Review remote search providers that communicate with GNOME Shell over D-Bus and determine whether they can supply icon data and declared width, height, or row-stride values. Providers that are malicious or compromised and return inconsistent geometry and buffer sizes are the relevant exposure condition.