Overly broad permissions can turn one compromised account into a much larger security problem. Learn how to reduce unnecessary access, review privileges, and apply least privilege across modern Linux systems. Review Linux Privileges×

Alerts This Week
Warning Icon 1 542
Alerts This Week
Warning Icon 1 542

Debian Security Advisory DSA 310-1 Critical: XaoS Setuid Risk

debian
Calendar Grey June 8, 2003
Scroller Debian
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debian Security Advisory
XaoS, a program for displaying fractal images, is installed setuidroot on certain architectures in order to use svgalib, which requiresaccess to the video hardware

Summary

XaoS, a program for displaying fractal images, is installed setuid
root on certain architectures in order to use svgalib, which requires
access to the video hardware. However, it is not designed for secure
setuid execution, and can be exploited to gain root privileges.

In these updated packages, the setuid bit has been removed from the
xaos binary. Users who require the svgalib functionality should grant
these privileges only to a trusted group.

This vulnerability is exploitable in version 3.0-18 (potato) on i386
and alpha architectures, and in version 3.0-23 (woody) on the i386
architecture only.

For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in
version 3.0-23woody1.

For the old stable distribution (potato) this problem has been fixed
in version 3.0-18potato1.

For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem has been fixed in
version 3.1r-4.

We recommend that you update your xaos package.

Upgrade Instructions
--------------------

wget url
will fetch the file for you
dpkg -i f...

Read the Full Advisory

Severity
critical
Lowest
Low
Medium
High
Critical

Package: xaos

Get the latest News and Insights

Get the latest Linux and open source security news straight to your inbox.