PCRE: Buffer overflow

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200807-03 / libpcre glib
Release Date	July 07, 2008
Latest Revision	July 07, 2008: 01
Impact	high
Exploitable	remote

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
dev-libs/libpcre	< 7.7-r1	>= 7.7-r1	All supported architectures
dev-libs/glib	< 2.16.3-r1	>= 2.16.3-r1, < 2.14.0	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #228091, #230039

Synopsis

A buffer overflow vulnerability has been discovered in PCRE, allowing for the execution of arbitrary code and a Denial of Service.

2. Impact Information

Background

PCRE is a Perl-compatible regular expression library. GLib includes a copy of PCRE.

Description

Tavis Ormandy of the Google Security team reported a heap-based buffer overflow when compiling regular expression patterns containing "Internal Option Settings" such as "(?i)".

Impact

A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted regular expression to an application making use of the PCRE library, which could possibly lead to the execution of arbitrary code or a Denial of Service.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All PCRE users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-libs/libpcre-7.7-r1"

All GLib users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.2: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-libs/glib-2.16.3-r1"

4. References

CVE-2008-2371

Updated July 07, 2008

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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