RHSA-2003:087 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated file packages are available to close a buffer overflow vulnerability.

[Updated 12 March 2003]
Added packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES and Red Hat Enterprise
Linux WS

Description

The file command is used to identify a particular file according to
the type of data contained by the file.

The file utility before version 3.41 contains a buffer overflow
vulnerability in the ELF parsing routines. This vulnerability may
allow an attacker to create a carefully crafted binary which can cause
arbitrary code to run if a victim runs the file command against that
binary.

On some distributions it may also be possible to trigger this file command
vulnerability by encouraging the victim to use the
less command on an exploited file name so that it will be processed by the
lesspipe.sh script.

All users are advised to update to these erratum packages which
contain a backported patch to correct this vulnerability.

Red Hat would like to thank iDefense for disclosing this issue and
zen-parse for discussion of some of the implications.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

Please note that this update is available via Red Hat Network. To use Red
Hat Network, launch the Red Hat Update Agent with the following command:

up2date

This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate
RPMs being upgraded on your system.

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 2 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 2 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 2 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 2 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 85635 - file utility contains buffer overflow

CVEs

• CVE-2003-0102

References

(none)