USN-1762-1: APT vulnerability

14 March 2013

An attacker could trick APT into installing altered packages.

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Releases

Packages

  • apt - Advanced front-end for dpkg

Details

Ansgar Burchardt discovered that APT incorrectly handled InRelease files.
If a remote attacker were able to perform a machine-in-the-middle attack, this
flaw could potentially be used to install altered packages.

This update corrects the issue by disabling InRelease file support
completely. Please note that this update breaks third-party repositories
that provide only a InRelease file and no separate Release and Release.gpg
files. The default Ubuntu repositories do not use InRelease files.

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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 12.10
Ubuntu 12.04
Ubuntu 11.10

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

References

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Further reading