RHSA-2005:791 - Security Advisory

Topic

An updated thunderbird package that fixes various bugs is now available for
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

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

Description

Mozilla Thunderbird is a standalone mail and newsgroup client.

A bug was found in the way Thunderbird processes certain international
domain names. An attacker could create a specially crafted HTML mail, which
when viewed by the victim would cause Thunderbird to crash or possibly
execute arbitrary code. Thunderbird as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 4 must have international domain names enabled by the user in order
to be vulnerable to this issue. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures
project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2005-2871 to this issue.

A bug was found in the way Thunderbird processes certain Unicode sequences.
It may be possible to execute arbitrary code as the user running
Thunderbird if the user views a specially crafted HTML mail containing
Unicode sequences. (CAN-2005-2702)

A bug was found in the way Thunderbird makes XMLHttp requests. It is
possible that a malicious HTML mail could leverage this flaw to exploit
other proxy or server flaws from the victim's machine. It is also possible
that this flaw could be leveraged to send XMLHttp requests to hosts other
than the originator; the default behavior of Thunderbird is to disallow
such actions. (CAN-2005-2703)

A bug was found in the way Thunderbird implemented its XBL interface. It
may be possible for a malicious HTML mail to create an XBL binding in such
a way that would allow arbitrary JavaScript execution with chrome
permissions. Please note that in Thunderbird 1.0.6 this issue is not
directly exploitable and will need to leverage other unknown exploits.
(CAN-2005-2704)

An integer overflow bug was found in Thunderbird's JavaScript engine. Under
favorable conditions, it may be possible for a malicious mail message to
execute arbitrary code as the user running Thunderbird. Please note that
JavaScript support is disabled by default in Thunderbird. (CAN-2005-2705)

A bug was found in the way Thunderbird displays about: pages. It is
possible for a malicious HTML mail to open an about: page, such as
about:mozilla, in such a way that it becomes possible to execute JavaScript
with chrome privileges. (CAN-2005-2706)

A bug was found in the way Thunderbird opens new windows. It is possible
for a malicious HTML mail to construct a new window without any user
interface components, such as the address bar and the status bar. This
window could then be used to mislead the user for malicious purposes.
(CAN-2005-2707)

A bug was found in the way Thunderbird processes URLs passed to it on the
command line. If a user passes a malformed URL to Thunderbird, such as
clicking on a link in an instant messaging program, it is possible to
execute arbitrary commands as the user running Thunderbird. (CAN-2005-2968)

Users of Thunderbird are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which
contains Thunderbird version 1.0.7 and is not vulnerable to these issues.

Solution

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

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 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 - 167944 - CAN-2005-2871 Firefox buffer overflow affects thunderbird
• BZ - 168531 - CAN-2005-2701 Multiple Firefox issues (CAN-2005-2702, CAN-2005-2703, CAN-2005-2704, CAN-2005-2705, CAN-2005-2706, CAN-2005-2707)

CVEs

• CVE-2005-2871
• CVE-2005-2702
• CVE-2005-2703
• CVE-2005-2704
• CVE-2005-2705
• CVE-2005-2706
• CVE-2005-2707
• CVE-2005-2968

References

(none)