Sylpheed, Sylpheed-Claws: Buffer overflow in LDIF importer

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200511-13 / sylpheed sylpheed-claws
Release Date	November 15, 2005
Latest Revision	November 15, 2005: 01
Impact	normal
Exploitable	remote

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
mail-client/sylpheed	< 2.0.4	>= 2.0.4	All supported architectures
mail-client/sylpheed-claws	< 1.0.5-r1	>= 1.0.5-r1	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #111853

Synopsis

Sylpheed and Sylpheed-Claws contain a buffer overflow vulnerability which may lead to the execution of arbitrary code.

2. Impact Information

Background

Sylpheed is a lightweight email client and newsreader. Sylpheed-Claws is a 'bleeding edge' version of Sylpheed. They both support the import of address books in LDIF (Lightweight Directory Interchange Format).

Description

Colin Leroy reported buffer overflow vulnerabilities in Sylpheed and Sylpheed-Claws. The LDIF importer uses a fixed length buffer to store data of variable length. Two similar problems exist also in the Mutt and Pine addressbook importers of Sylpheed-Claws.

Impact

By convincing a user to import a specially-crafted LDIF file into the address book, a remote attacker could cause the program to crash, potentially allowing the execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the software.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Sylpheed users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=mail-client/sylpheed-2.0.4"

All Sylpheed-Claws users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.2: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=mail-client/sylpheed-claws-1.0.5-r1"

4. References

CVE-2005-3354

Page updated November 15, 2005

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Security Team
Contact Address

Donate to support our development efforts.