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Red Hat Enterprise Linux: RHSA-2009:0018-01 Critical Xterm Command Risk

red hat
Calendar Grey January 7, 2009
Dist Redhat Esm H88
An urgent security patch for CentOS has been released to mitigate the threat of command execution vulnerabilities triggered by escape sequences in terminal interfaces.
An updated xterm package to correct a security issue is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4, and 5

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at

Summary

The xterm program is a terminal emulator for the X Window System.
A flaw was found in the xterm handling of Device Control Request Status String (DECRQSS) escape sequences. An attacker could create a malicious text file (or log entry, if unfiltered) that could run arbitrary commands if read by a victim inside an xterm window. (CVE-2008-2383)
All xterm users are advised to upgrade to the updated package, which contains a backported patch to resolve this issue. All running instances of xterm must be restarted for the update to take effect.

Topics%20covered

Topics Covered

security advisory security update critical command execution xterm Red Hat Enterprise escape sequences

References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-2383 https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification#important

Package List

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 3:
Source:
i386: xterm-179-11.EL3.i386.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.i386.rpm
ia64: xterm-179-11.EL3.ia64.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.ia64.rpm
ppc: xterm-179-11.EL3.ppc.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.ppc.rpm
s390: xterm-179-11.EL3.s390.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.s390.rpm
s390x: xterm-179-11.EL3.s390x.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.s390x.rpm
x86_64: xterm-179-11.EL3.x86_64.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.x86_64.rpm
Red Hat Desktop version 3:
Source:
i386: xterm-179-11.EL3.i386.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.i386.rpm
x86_64: xterm-179-11.EL3.x86_64.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.x86_64.rpm
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 3:
Source:
i386: xterm-179-11.EL3.i386.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.i386.rpm
ia64: xterm-179-11.EL3.ia64.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.ia64.rpm
x86_64: xterm-179-11.EL3.x86_64.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.x86_64.rpm
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 3:
Source:
i386: xterm-179-11.EL3.i386.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.i386.rpm
ia64: xterm-179-11.EL3.ia64.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.ia64.rpm
x86_64: xterm-179-11.EL3.x86_64.rpm xterm-debuginfo-179-11.EL3.x86_64.rpm
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4:
Source:
i386:

Read the Full Advisory


Severity
important
Lowest
Low
Medium
High
Critical

Advisory ID: RHSA-2009:0018-01
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Advisory URL: https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2009:0018.html
Issue date: 2009-01-07

Topic

An updated xterm package to correct a security issue is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4, and 5.

This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.


Topics%20covered

Topics Covered

security advisory security update critical command execution xterm Red Hat Enterprise escape sequences

Relevant Releases Architectures

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 3 - i386, ia64, ppc, s390, s390x, x86_64

Red Hat Desktop version 3 - i386, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 3 - i386, ia64, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 3 - i386, ia64, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 - i386, ia64, ppc, s390, s390x, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 - i386, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 - i386, ia64, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 - i386, ia64, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) - i386, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) - i386, ia64, ppc, s390x, x86_64

Bugs Fixed

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