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 1 544
Alerts This Week
Warning Icon 1 544

Ubuntu 11.04/10.10/10.04 LTS: USN-1177-1 Critical QEMU Privilege Escalation

ubuntu
Calendar Grey July 27, 2011
Scroller Ubuntu
A critical QEMU vulnerability could enable an attacker with guest access to escalate privileges and execute code on the host, requiring immediate updates
QEMU could be made to run with adminstrator group privileges under certain circumstances.

Summary

QEMU could be made to run with adminstrator group privileges under certain

circumstances.

Software Description:

- qemu-kvm: Machine emulator and virtualizer

Details:

Andrew Griffiths discovered that QEMU did not correctly drop privileges

when using the 'runas' argument. Under certain circumstances a local

attacker could exploit this to escalate privileges.

Update Instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following
package versions:

Ubuntu 11.04:
  qemu-kvm                        0.14.0+noroms-0ubuntu4.4

Ubuntu 10.10:
  qemu-kvm                        0.12.5+noroms-0ubuntu7.10
  qemu-kvm-extras                 0.12.5+noroms-0ubuntu7.10
  qemu-kvm-extras-static          0.12.5+noroms-0ubuntu7.10

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS:
  qemu-kvm                        0.12.3+noroms-0ubuntu9.15
  qemu-kvm-extras                 0.12.3+noroms-0ubuntu9.15
  qemu-kvm-extras-static          0.12.3+noroms-0ubuntu9.15

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

References

CVE-2011-2527

Severity
critical
Lowest
Low
Medium
High
Critical

July 27, 2011

Package Information

Get the latest News and Insights

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