Pound format string vulnerability

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200405-08 / pound
Release Date	May 18, 2004
Latest Revision	May 22, 2006: 02
Impact	high
Exploitable	remote

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
www-servers/pound	<= 1.5	>= 1.6	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #50421

Synopsis

There is a format string flaw in Pound, allowing remote execution of arbitrary code with the rights of the Pound process.

2. Impact Information

Background

Pound is a reverse proxy, load balancer and HTTPS front-end. It allows to distribute the load on several web servers and offers a SSL wrapper for web servers that do not support SSL directly.

Description

A format string flaw in the processing of syslog messages was discovered and corrected in Pound.

Impact

This flaw may allow remote execution of arbitrary code with the rights of the Pound daemon process. By default, Gentoo uses the "nobody" user to run the Pound daemon.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time. All users are advised to upgrade to the latest available version of Pound.

Resolution

All users of Pound should upgrade to the latest stable version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge sync

# emerge -pv ">=www-servers/pound-1.6"
# emerge ">=www-servers/pound-1.6"

4. References

Page updated May 18, 2004

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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