REDHAT-BUG-800591: High severity GNU FreeType vulnerability

Published Mar 6, 2012
·
Updated

An out-of heap-based buffer write flaw was found in the way FreeType font rendering engine performed parsing of glyph information and bitmaps for certain glyph bitmap distribution format (BDF) fonts. A remote attacker could provide a specially-crafted BDF font file, which once opened in an application linked against FreeType would lead to that application crash, or, potentially, arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running the application.

Upstream bug report: [1] https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?35607

Upstream patch: [2] http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/freetype/freetype2.git/commit/?id=28dd2c45957278e962f95633157b6139de8170aa

Acknowledgements:

Red Hat would like to thank Mateusz Jurczyk of the Google Security Team for reporting this issue.

Affected Software

1 affected component
GNU FreeType

Event History

Mar 6, 2012
Data Sourced
06:51 PM
DescriptionSeverityAffected Software
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Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of REDHAT-BUG-800591?

The severity of REDHAT-BUG-800591 is classified as high, with a score of 7.

2

How do I fix REDHAT-BUG-800591?

To fix REDHAT-BUG-800591, ensure that you update your GNU FreeType to the latest version that addresses this vulnerability.

3

What type of vulnerability is REDHAT-BUG-800591?

REDHAT-BUG-800591 is a heap-based buffer write flaw found in the FreeType font rendering engine.

4

What can an attacker do with REDHAT-BUG-800591?

An attacker could exploit REDHAT-BUG-800591 by crafting a malicious BDF font file that could lead to application crashes or arbitrary code execution.

5

In which software is REDHAT-BUG-800591 found?

REDHAT-BUG-800591 is found in the GNU FreeType font rendering engine.

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