Critical Libxml2 Security Update for SciLinux: January 2012 Buffer Overflow

Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:58:30 -0600
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Sender: Security Errata for Scientific Linux
 
From: Patrick Riehecky 
Subject: Security ERRATA Important: libxml2 on SL4.x i386/x86_64
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Synopsis: Important: libxml2 security update
Issue Date: 2012-01-11
CVE Numbers: CVE-2011-0216
 CVE-2011-2834
 CVE-2011-3905
 CVE-2011-3919

The libxml2 library is a development toolbox providing the implementation
of various XML standards. One of those standards is the XML Path Language
(XPath), which is a language for addressing parts of an XML document.

A heap-based buffer overflow flaw was found in the way libxml2 decoded
entity references with long names. A remote attacker could provide a
specially-crafted XML file that, when opened in an application linked
against libxml2, would cause the application to crash or, potentially,
execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the
application. (CVE-2011-3919)

An off-by-one error, leading to a heap-based buffer overflow, was found in
the way libxml2 parsed certain XML files. A remote attacker could provide a
specially-crafted XML file that, when opened in an application linked
against libxml2, would cause the application to crash or, potentially,
execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the
application. (CVE-2011-0216)

A flaw was found in the way libxml2 parsed certain XPath expressions. If an
attacker were able to supply a specially-crafted XML file to an application
using libxml2, as well as an XPath expression for that application to run
against the crafted file, it could cause the application to crash.
(CVE-2011-2834)

Note: Scientific Linux does not ship any applications that use libxml2 in
a way that would allow the CVE-2011-2834 flaw to be exploited; however, third-party
applications may allow XPath expressions to be passed which could trigger
this flaw.

An out-of-bounds memory read flaw was found in libxml2. A remote attacker
could provide a specially-crafted XML file that, when opened in an
application linked against libxml2, would cause the application to crash.
(CVE-2011-3905)

All users of libxml2 are advised to upgrade to these updated packages,
which contain backported patches to correct these issues. The desktop must
be restarted (log out, then log back in) for this update to take effect.

SL4:
 i386
 libxml2-2.6.16-12.9.i386.rpm
 libxml2-debuginfo-2.6.16-12.9.i386.rpm
 libxml2-devel-2.6.16-12.9.i386.rpm
 libxml2-python-2.6.16-12.9.i386.rpm
 x86_64
 libxml2-2.6.16-12.9.i386.rpm
 libxml2-2.6.16-12.9.x86_64.rpm
 libxml2-debuginfo-2.6.16-12.9.i386.rpm
 libxml2-debuginfo-2.6.16-12.9.x86_64.rpm
 libxml2-devel-2.6.16-12.9.x86_64.rpm
 libxml2-python-2.6.16-12.9.x86_64.rpm

- Scientific Linux Development Team