REDHAT-BUG-800602: Low severity FreeType vulnerability

Published Mar 6, 2012

Updated

An out-of heap-based buffer read flaw was found in the way FreeType font rendering engine performed conversion of ASCII string objects, contained within glyph bitmap distribution format (BDF) font file, into signed short integers. A remote attacker could provide a specially-crafted BDF file, which once processed by an application linked against FreeType would lead to that application crash.

Upstream bug report: [1] https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?35658

Upstream patch: [2] http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/freetype/freetype2.git/commit/?id=d9c1659610f9cd5e103790cb5963483d65cf0d2d

Acknowledgements:

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

Affected Software

1 affected component

FreeType

Event History

Mar 6, 2012

Data Sourced

06:57 PM

DescriptionSeverityAffected Software

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of REDHAT-BUG-800602?

The severity of REDHAT-BUG-800602 is considered high due to the potential for remote code execution from a specially-crafted BDF file.

How do I fix REDHAT-BUG-800602?

To fix REDHAT-BUG-800602, update to the latest version of the FreeType font rendering engine that addresses this vulnerability.

What systems are affected by REDHAT-BUG-800602?

RedHat systems running versions of the FreeType font rendering engine are affected by REDHAT-BUG-800602.

What types of attacks can result from REDHAT-BUG-800602?

Exploitation of REDHAT-BUG-800602 may allow attackers to perform remote code execution through malicious BDF font files.

Is there a workaround for REDHAT-BUG-800602?

Currently, the best workaround for REDHAT-BUG-800602 is to avoid processing untrusted BDF files until a patch can be applied.