USN-1288-1: vsftpd vulnerability

7 December 2011

Vsftpd or other applications could be made to crash if vsftpd received specially crafted network traffic.

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Releases

Packages

  • vsftpd - FTP server written for security

Details

It was discovered that the 2.6.35 and earlier Linux kernel does not
properly handle a high rate of creation and cleanup of network namespaces,
which makes it easier for remote attackers to cause a denial of service
(memory consumption) in applications that require a separate namespace per
connection, like vsftpd. This update adjusts vsftpd to only use network
namespaces on kernels that are known to be not affected.

Reduce your security exposure

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.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 11.10
Ubuntu 11.04
Ubuntu 10.10
Ubuntu 10.04

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

References