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Emacs could be made to run programs as your login if it opened a specially
crafted file.
Software Description:
- emacs23: The GNU Emacs editor (with GTK+ user interface)
Details:
Hiroshi Oota discovered that Emacs incorrectly handled search paths. If a
user were tricked into opening a file with Emacs, a local attacker could
execute arbitrary Lisp code with the privileges of the user invoking the
program. (CVE-2012-0035)
Paul Ling discovered that Emacs incorrectly handled certain eval forms in
local-variable sections. If a user were tricked into opening a specially
crafted file with Emacs, a remote attacker could execute arbitrary Lisp
code with the privileges of the user invoking the program. (CVE-2012-3479)
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: emacs23 23.3+1-1ubuntu9.1 emacs23-common 23.3+1-1ubuntu9.1 Ubuntu 11.10: emacs23 23.3+1-1ubuntu4.1 emacs23-common 23.3+1-1ubuntu4.1 After a standard system update you need to restart Emacs to make all the necessary changes.
https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-1586-1
CVE-2012-0035, CVE-2012-3479
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