USN-1099-1: GDM vulnerability

30 March 2011

A GDM vulnerability allows local attackers to gain root privileges.

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Releases

Packages

  • gdm - GNOME Display Manager

Details

Sebastian Krahmer discovered that GDM (GNOME Display Manager) did not
properly drop privileges when handling the cache directories used
to store users' dmrc and face icon files. This could allow a local
attacker to change the ownership of arbitrary files, thereby gaining
root privileges.

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Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

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Update instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 9.10
Ubuntu 10.10
Ubuntu 10.04

After a standard system update you need to log out all desktop sessions
and restart GDM to make all the necessary changes.

References

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Further reading