Ruby: Denial of Service

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
dev-lang/ruby	< 1.8.6_p369	>= 1.8.6_p369	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #273213

A flaw in the Ruby standard library might allow remote attackers to cause a Denial of Service attack.

2. Impact Information

Ruby is an interpreted object-oriented programming language. The elaborate standard library includes the "BigDecimal" class.

Tadayoshi Funaba reported that BigDecimal in ext/bigdecimal/bigdecimal.c does not properly handle string arguments containing overly long numbers.

A remote attacker could exploit this issue to remotely cause a Denial of Service attack.

3. Resolution Information

There is no known workaround at this time.

All Ruby users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-lang/ruby-1.8.6_p369"

4. References

Page updated June 28, 2009

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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