rxvt-unicode: Buffer overflow

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
x11-terms/rxvt-unicode	< 5.3	>= 5.3, < 4.8	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #84680

rxvt-unicode is vulnerable to a buffer overflow that could lead to the execution of arbitrary code.

2. Impact Information

rxvt-unicode is a clone of the well known terminal emulator rxvt.

Rob Holland of the Gentoo Linux Security Audit Team discovered that rxvt-unicode fails to properly check input length.

Successful exploitation would allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the user running rxvt-unicode.

3. Resolution Information

There is no known workaround at this time.

All rxvt-unicode users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=x11-terms/rxvt-unicode-5.3"

4. References

Page updated March 20, 2005

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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