[KDE Security Advisory] KDM symlink attack vulnerability
KDE Security Advisory: KDM symlink attack vulnerability
Original Release Date: 2006-06-14
URL: http://www.kde.org/info/security/advisory-20060614-1.txt
0. References
CVE-2006-2449
1. Systems affected:
KDM as shipped with KDE 3.2.0 up to including 3.5.3. KDE 3.1.x and
older and newer versions than KDE 3.5.3 are not affected.
2. Overview:
KDM allows the user to select the session type for login. This
setting is permanently stored in the user home directory. By
using a symlink attack, KDM can be tricked into allowing the
user to read file content that would otherwise be unreadable
to this particular user. This vulnerability was discovered
and reported by Ludwig Nussel.
3. Impact:
KDM might allow a normal user to read the content of /etc/shadow
or other files, which allows compromising the privacy of another
user or even the security of the whole system.
4. Solution:
Source code patches have been made available which fix these
vulnerabilities. Contact your OS vendor / binary package provider
for information about how to obtain updated binary packages.
5. Patch:
A patch for KDE 3.4.0 - KDE 3.5.3 is available from
ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/security_patches :
9daecff07d57dabba35da247e752916a post-3.5.0-kdebase-kdm.diff
A patch for KDE 3.3.x is available from
ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/security_patches :
f2e1424d97f2cd18674bef833274c5e3 post-3.3.0-kdebase-kdm.diff
A patch for KDE 3.2.x is available from
ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/security_patches :
8aa6b41cccca4216c6eb1cf705c2370a post-3.2.0-kdebase-kdm.diff