Avahi: "netlink" message vulnerability — GLSA 200611-13

Avahi fails to verify the origin of netlink messages, which could allow local users to spoof network changes.

Affected packages

net-dns/avahi on all architectures
Affected versions < 0.6.15
Unaffected versions >= 0.6.15

Background

Avahi is a system that facilitates service discovery on a local network.

Description

Avahi does not check that the netlink messages come from the kernel instead of a user-space process.

Impact

A local attacker could exploit this vulnerability by crafting malicious netlink messages and trick Avahi to react to fake network changes. This could lead users to connect to untrusted services without knowing.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Avahi users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-dns/avahi-0.6.15"

References

Release date
November 20, 2006

Latest revision
November 20, 2006: 01

Severity
normal

Exploitable
local

Bugzilla entries