RHSA-2003:111 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated Balsa packages are available which fix potential vulnerabilities in
the IMAP handling code and in libesmtp.

Description

Balsa is a GNOME email client which includes code from Mutt.

A potential buffer overflow exists in Balsa versions 1.2 and higher when
parsing mailbox names returned by an IMAP server. It is possible that a
hostile IMAP server could cause arbitrary code to be executed by the user
running Balsa.

Additionally, a buffer overflow in libesmtp (an SMTP library used by Balsa)
before version 0.8.11 allows a hostile remote SMTP server to execute
arbitrary code via a certain response or cause a denial of service via long
server responses.

Users of Balsa are recommended to upgrade to these erratum packages which
include updated versions of Balsa and libesmtp which are not vulnerable to
these issues.

Red Hat would like to thank CORE security for discovering the
vulnerability, and the Mutt team for providing a patch.

Solution

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

To update all RPMs for your particular architecture, run:

rpm -Fvh [filenames]

where [filenames] is a list of the RPMs you wish to upgrade. Only those
RPMs which are currently installed will be updated. Those RPMs which are
not installed but included in the list will not be updated. Note that you
can also use wildcards (*.rpm) if your current directory *only* contains the
desired RPMs.

Please note that this update is also available via Red Hat Network. Many
people find this an easier way to apply updates. 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 - 86601 - CAN-2003-0140 balsa has malicious IMAP server vulnerability

CVEs

• CVE-2002-1090
• CVE-2003-0140

References

(none)