Vulnerability Note VU#129910

SuSe Linux LibTIFF package vulnerable to buffer overflow

Overview

The SuSe Linux version of LibTIFF is vulnerable to a buffer overflow that may allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code.

I. Description

SuSe LibTIFF is a library used to encode and decode images in Tag Image File Format (TIFF) format on SuSE systems. A lack of input validation in the OJPEG (old JPEG) handling routine, OJPEGVSetField (in libtiff/tif_ojpeg.c), may cause a heap-based buffer overflow. Consequently, a remote attacker may be able to exploit this vulnerability by supplying an application using LibTIFF with a specially crafted TIFF image.

Please note that OJPEG support is enabled by default in versions of the SuSE LibTIFF library without the latest security updates (announced at SUSE-SA:2004:038) installed.

II. Impact

If a remote attacker can persuade a user to access a specially crafted TIFF image, that attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the application linked to LibTIFF.

III. Solution

Update SuSE

There is currently no patch available to resolve this issue. Please see the workarounds below for mitigation tactics. SuSE has released updates that disable OJPEG support as part of SuSE Security Announcement SUSE-SA:2004:03.

Disable OJPEG support

Until an update can be applied, you may wish to disable OJPEG support. To do this, the LibTIFF libraries will have to be recompiled with OJPEG support disabled.

Do Not Accept TIFF Images from Untrusted Sources

Exploitation occurs by accessing a specially crafted TIFF image. By only accessing TIFF images from trusted or known sources, the chances of exploitation are reduced.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
SuSE Inc.	Vulnerable	27-Oct-2004

References

http://www.suse.co.uk/uk/private/download/updates/91_x86_64.html
http://www.suse.co.uk/de/security/2004_38_libtiff.html
http://securitytracker.com/alerts/2004/Oct/1011897.html

Credit

This vulnerability was reported by iDefense.

iDefense credits Andrei Nigmatulin for discovering this vulnerability.

This document was written by Jeff Gennari.

Other Information

Date Public:	2004-10-22
Date First Published:	2004-12-01
Date Last Updated:	2004-12-01
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):	CAN-2004-0929
NVD-ID(s):	CAN-2004-0929
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	3.24
Document Revision:	172

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