RHSA-2005:040 - Security Advisory

Topic

An updated enscript package that fixes several security issues is now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

This update has been rated as having low security impact by the Red Hat
Security Response Team.

Description

GNU enscript converts ASCII files to PostScript.

Enscript has the ability to interpret special escape sequences. A flaw was
found in the handling of the epsf command used to insert inline EPS files
into a document. An attacker could create a carefully crafted ASCII file
which made use of the epsf pipe command in such a way that it could execute
arbitrary commands if the file was opened with enscript by a victim. The
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned
the name CAN-2004-1184 to this issue.

Additional flaws in Enscript were also discovered which can only be
triggered by executing enscript with carefully crafted command line
arguments. These flaws therefore only have a security impact if enscript
is executed by other programs and passed untrusted data from remote users.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has
assigned the names CAN-2004-1185 and CAN-2004-1186 to these issues.

All users of enscript should upgrade to these updated packages, which
contain backported patches to correct these issues.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied. Use Red Hat
Network to download and update your packages. To launch the Red Hat
Update Agent, use the following command:

up2date

For information on how to install packages manually, refer to the
following Web page for the System Administration or Customization
guide specific to your system:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 144686 - CAN-2004-1184 multiple security issues in enscript (CAN-2004-1185 CAN-2004-1186)

CVEs

• CVE-2004-1184
• CVE-2004-1185
• CVE-2004-1186

References

(none)