REDHAT-BUG-858238: Medium severity GNU glibc vulnerability

Published Sep 18, 2012
·
Updated

A security flaw was found in the way strcoll() interface of glibc, the GNU libc libraries, performed failsafe back to alloca() routine when malloc() function call failed previously (due to out of memory [OOM] condition for example). If an application linked against glibc was missing an application-level sanity checks for validity of strcoll() arguments and accepted untrusted input, an attacker could use this flaw to cause the particular application to crash or, potentially, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application.

Upstream bug report (including the reproducer): [1] http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/showbug.cgi?id=14552#c0

Issue / part: 1) alloca() stack overflow from [1].

References: [2] http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/09/07/9 [3] http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/09/07/15 [4] http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/09/10/1 [5] http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/09/10/3 [6] http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/09/13/16

Affected Software

1 affected component
GNU glibc

Event History

Sep 18, 2012
Data Sourced
12:12 PM
DescriptionSeverityAffected Software

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of REDHAT-BUG-858238?

The severity of REDHAT-BUG-858238 is medium, rated at 4.

2

What does REDHAT-BUG-858238 affect?

REDHAT-BUG-858238 affects applications linked against the GNU glibc libraries.

3

How do I fix REDHAT-BUG-858238?

To fix REDHAT-BUG-858238, ensure that your application properly handles memory allocation failures.

4

What is the nature of the vulnerability in REDHAT-BUG-858238?

The vulnerability in REDHAT-BUG-858238 is related to a flawed failsafe back to the alloca() routine when the malloc() function call fails.

5

When was REDHAT-BUG-858238 published?

REDHAT-BUG-858238 was published on September 18, 2012.

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