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[ GLSA 200606-02 ] shadow: Privilege escalation



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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory                           GLSA 200606-02
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                                            http://security.gentoo.org/
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  Severity: Normal
     Title: shadow: Privilege escalation
      Date: June 07, 2006
      Bugs: #133615
        ID: 200606-02

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Synopsis
========

A security issue in shadow allows a local user to perform certain
actions with escalated privileges.

Background
==========

shadow provides a set of utilities to deal with user accounts.

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

    -------------------------------------------------------------------
     Package          /   Vulnerable   /                    Unaffected
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
  1  sys-apps/shadow      < 4.0.15-r2                     >= 4.0.15-r2

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

When the mailbox is created in useradd, the "open()" function does not
receive the three arguments it expects while O_CREAT is present, which
leads to random permissions on the created file, before fchmod() is
executed.

Impact
======

Depending on the random permissions given to the mailbox file which is
at this time owned by root, a local user may be able to open this file
for reading or writing, or even executing it, maybe as the root user.

Workaround
==========

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution
==========

All shadow users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-apps/shadow-4.0.15-r2"

References
==========

  [ 1 ] CVE-2006-1174
        http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2006-1174

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

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

  http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200606-02.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@xxxxxxxxxx or alternatively, you may file a bug at
http://bugs.gentoo.org.

License
=======

Copyright 2006 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

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