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Alerts This Week
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Gentoo: 201402-27 High Severity: Pidgin-Knotify Remote Code Execution

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Calendar Grey February 26, 2014
Scroller Gentoo
Critical warning issued for Gentoo Linux regarding pidgin-knotify, enabling potential remote code execution vulnerabilities.
A vulnerability in pidgin-knotify might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code.

Summary

pidgin-knotify does not properly sanitize shell metacharacters from received messages.

Resolution

Gentoo has discontinued support for pidgin-knotify. We recommend that users unmerge pidgin-knotify: # emerge --unmerge "x11-plugins/pidgin-knotify"

References

[ 1 ] CVE-2010-3088 http://nvd.nist.gov/nvd.cfm?cvename=CVE-2010-3088

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201402-27
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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.

Severity: High
Title: pidgin-knotify: Arbitrary code execution
Date: February 26, 2014
Bugs: #336916
ID: 201402-27

Synopsis

A vulnerability in pidgin-knotify might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code.

Background

pidgin-knotify is a Pidgin plug-in to display message notifications in KDE.

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Affected Packages

------------------------------------------------------------------- Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 x11-plugins/pidgin-knotify <= 0.2.1 Vulnerable! ------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: Certain packages are still vulnerable. Users should migrate to another package if one is available or wait for the existing packages to be marked stable by their architecture maintainers.

Impact

===== A remote attacker could send a specially crafted instant message, possibly resulting in execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the Pidgin process.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.