GLSA 200501-34: Konversation: Various vulnerabilities

Severity:normal
Title:Konversation: Various vulnerabilities
Date:01/24/2005
Bugs: #78712
ID:200501-34

Synopsis

Konversation contains multiple vulnerabilities that could lead to remote command execution or information leaks.

Background

Konversation is a user-friendly IRC client for KDE.

Affected packages

Package Vulnerable Unaffected Architecture(s)
net-irc/konversation < 0.15.1 >= 0.15.1 All supported architectures

Description

Wouter Coekaerts has discovered three vulnerabilities within Konversation:

  • The Server::parseWildcards function, which is used by the "Quick Buttons", does not properly handle variable expansion (CAN-2005-0129).
  • Perl scripts included with Konversation do not properly escape shell metacharacters (CAN-2005-0130).
  • The 'Nick' and 'Password' fields in the Quick Connect dialog can be easily confused (CAN-2005-0131).

Impact

A malicious server could create specially-crafted channels, which would exploit certain flaws in Konversation, potentially leading to the execution of shell commands. A user could also unintentionally input their password into the 'Nick' field in the Quick Connect dialog, exposing his password to IRC users, and log files.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Konversation users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-irc/konversation-0.15.1"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200501-34.xml

Concerns?

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at https://bugs.gentoo.org.

License

Copyright 2010 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text belongs to its owner(s). The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

Thank you!