Pulseaudio: Privilege escalation

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200802-07 / pulseaudio
Release Date	February 13, 2008
Latest Revision	February 13, 2008: 01
Impact	high
Exploitable	local

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
media-sound/pulseaudio	< 0.9.9	>= 0.9.9	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #207214

Synopsis

A vulnerability in pulseaudio may allow a local user to execute actions with escalated privileges.

2. Impact Information

Background

Pulseaudio is a networked sound server with an advanced plugin system.

Description

Marcus Meissner from SUSE reported that the pa_drop_root() function does not properly check the return value of the system calls setuid(), seteuid(), setresuid() and setreuid() when dropping its privileges.

Impact

A local attacker could cause a resource exhaustion to make the system calls fail, which would cause Pulseaudio to run as root. The attacker could then perform actions with root privileges.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Pulseaudio users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=media-sound/pulseaudio-0.9.9"

4. References

CVE-2008-0008

Page updated February 13, 2008

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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