Ruby: Terminal Control Character Injection

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 201001-09 / ruby
Release Date	January 14, 2010
Latest Revision	January 14, 2010: 01
Impact	normal
Exploitable	remote

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
dev-lang/ruby	< 1.8.7_p249	>= 1.8.7_p249, revision >= 1.8.6_p388	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #300468

Synopsis

An input sanitation flaw in the WEBrick HTTP server included in Ruby might allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary control characters into terminal sessions.

2. Impact Information

Background

Ruby is an interpreted scripting language for quick and easy object-oriented programming. It comes bundled with a HTTP server ("WEBrick").

Description

Giovanni Pellerano, Alessandro Tanasi and Francesco Ongaro reported that WEBrick does not filter terminal control characters, for instance when handling HTTP logs.

Impact

A remote attacker could send a specially crafted HTTP request to a WEBrick server to inject arbitrary terminal control characters, possibly resulting in the execution of arbitrary commands, data loss, or other unspecified impact. This could also be used to facilitate other attacks.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Ruby 1.8.7 users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-lang/ruby-1.8.7_p249"

All Ruby 1.8.6 users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.2: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-lang/ruby-1.8.6_p388"

4. References

CVE-2009-4492

Page updated January 14, 2010

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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