Vulnerability Note VU#354838

FTE fails to properly validate command line arguments

Overview

FTE contains a vulnerability in the processing of command line arguments that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code.

I. Description

FTE is a text editor available for a variety of operating systems. There is a buffer overflow vulnerability in the way FTE performs bounds checking on command line arguments. By supplying an overly long string of characters as a command line argument, a local user could execute arbitrary code on the system with privileges of the FTE process. Typically, FTE is installed with setuid root privileges.

II. Impact

A local user could execute arbitrary code with privileges of the FTE process.

III. Solution

Upgrade

Upgrade to the latest version of FTE as specified by your vendor.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
Debian	Vulnerable	15-Apr-2004

References

http://shellcode.org/Advisories/FTE.txt
http://fte.sourceforge.net/
http://secunia.com/advisories/11290/
http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/xfdb/15726
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/10041
http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-472
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=203871

Credit

This vulnerability was reported by Steve Kemp.

This document was written by Damon Morda.

Other Information

Date Public:	2004-04-03
Date First Published:	2004-04-16
Date Last Updated:	2004-04-16
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):	CAN-2003-0648
NVD-ID(s):	CAN-2003-0648
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	10.69
Document Revision:	8

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Get Adobe Reader