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Vulnerability Note VU#606700

file integer overflow vulnerability

Overview

The file program contains a vulnerability that may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code or create a denial-of-service condition.

I. Description

file is a program for Unix-like operating systems that is used to determine what type of data is contained in a file.

file contains a buffer overflow vulnerability that is caused by an integer overflow in the file_printf function. To trigger the overflow, an attacker would need to convince a user to run a vulnerable version of file on a specially crafted file.

II. Impact

An attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the user running the vulnerable version of file or cause the program to crash, creating a denial-of-service condition

III. Solution

Upgrade

Version 4.20 of file was released to address this issue. Note that operating systems may ship with different versions of the file program. See the systems affected portion of this document for information about specific vendors.

Do not run file as root

Running the file program with a limited user account may partially mitigate the impact of successful exploitation of vulnerability.

Systems Affected

VendorStatusDate Updated
Apache HTTP Server ProjectUnknown26-Mar-2007
Apple Computer, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
Conectiva Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
Cray Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
Debian GNU/LinuxVulnerable6-Apr-2007
EMC, Inc. (formerly Data General Corporation)Unknown20-Mar-2007
Engarde Secure LinuxUnknown20-Mar-2007
F5 Networks, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
Fedora ProjectUnknown20-Mar-2007
FreeBSD, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
FujitsuUnknown20-Mar-2007
Gentoo LinuxVulnerable6-Apr-2007
Hewlett-Packard CompanyUnknown20-Mar-2007
HitachiUnknown20-Mar-2007
IBM CorporationUnknown20-Mar-2007
IBM Corporation (zseries)Unknown20-Mar-2007
IBM eServerUnknown20-Mar-2007
Immunix Communications, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
Ingrian Networks, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
Juniper Networks, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
Mandriva, Inc.Vulnerable26-Mar-2007
Microsoft CorporationNot Vulnerable23-Mar-2007
MontaVista Software, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
NEC CorporationUnknown20-Mar-2007
NetBSDUnknown20-Mar-2007
NokiaUnknown20-Mar-2007
Novell, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
OpenBSDUnknown20-Mar-2007
Openwall GNU/*/LinuxVulnerable26-Mar-2007
QNX, Software Systems, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
Red Hat, Inc.Vulnerable23-Mar-2007
Silicon Graphics, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
Slackware Linux Inc.Vulnerable6-Apr-2007
Sony CorporationUnknown20-Mar-2007
Sun Microsystems, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007
SUSE LinuxVulnerable6-Apr-2007
The SCO GroupUnknown20-Mar-2007
Trustix Secure LinuxVulnerable6-Apr-2007
TurbolinuxUnknown20-Mar-2007
UbuntuVulnerable23-Mar-2007
UnisysUnknown20-Mar-2007
Wind River Systems, Inc.Unknown20-Mar-2007

References


http://mx.gw.com/pipermail/file/2007/000161.html
ftp://ftp.astron.com/pub/file/file-4.20.tar.gz
https://www.securecoding.cert.org/confluence/x/RgE
http://secunia.com/advisories/24548/
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-439-1
http://secunia.com/advisories/24592/
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDKSA-2007:067
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2007-0124.html
https://issues.rpath.com/browse/RPL-1148
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/2302
http://secunia.com/advisories/25133/
http://secunia.com/advisories/25393/
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305530

Credit

Thanks to Jean-Sébastien Guay-Leroux and Christos Zoulas for information that was used in this report.

This document was written by Ryan Giobbi.

Other Information

Date Public03/19/2007
Date First Published03/26/2007 03:31:05 PM
Date Last Updated10/16/2007
CERT Advisory 
CVE-ID(s)CVE-2007-1536
NVD-ID(s)CVE-2007-1536
US-CERT Technical Alerts 
Metric1.62
Document Revision44

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