This week advisories were released for iceweasel, enscript, xulrunner, hf, thunderbird, kernel, libcdaudio, tog-pegasus, vim, libxml2, gaim, webkit, pigin, and hplip. Distributors include Debian, Mandriva, Red Hat, Slackware, and Ubuntu.

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LinuxSecurity.com Feature Extras:

A Secure Nagios Server - Nagios is a monitoring software designed to let you know about problems on your hosts and networks quickly. You can configure it to be used on any network. Setting up a Nagios server on any Linux distribution is a very quick process however to make it a secure setup it takes some work. This article will not show you how to install Nagios since there are tons of them out there but it will show you in detail ways to improve your Nagios security.

Never Installed a Firewall on Ubuntu? Try Firestarter - When I typed on Google "Do I really need a firewall?" 695,000 results came across. And I'm pretty sure they must be saying "Hell yeah!". In my opinion, no one would ever recommend anyone to sit naked on the internet keeping in mind the insecurity internet carries these days, unless you really know what you are doing.

Read on for more information on Firestarter.

Thank you for reading the LinuxSecurity.com weekly security newsletter. The purpose of this document is to provide our readers with a quick summary of each week's most relevant Linux security headline.

EnGarde Secure Community 3.0.21 Now Available (Oct 7)

Guardian Digital is happy to announce the release of EnGarde Secure Community 3.0.21 (Version 3.0, Release 21). This release includes many updated packages and bug fixes and some feature enhancements to the EnGarde Secure Linux Installer and the SELinux policy.

In distribution since 2001, EnGarde Secure Community was one of the very first security platforms developed entirely from open source, and has been engineered from the ground-up to provide users and organizations with complete, secure Web functionality, DNS, database, e-mail security and even e-commerce.
Debian: New iceweasel packages fix several vulnerabilities (Nov 24)

Justin Schuh discovered that a buffer overflow in the http-index-format parser could lead to arbitrary code execution.

advisories/debian/debian-new-iceweasel-packages-fix-several-vulnerabilities-60726
Debian: New enscript packages fix arbitrary code execution (Nov 24)

Ulf Harnhammer discovered that a buffer overflow may lead to the execution of arbitrary code.

advisories/debian/debian-new-enscript-packages-fix-arbitrary-code-execution
Debian: New xulrunner packages fix several vulnerabilities (Nov 23)

Justin Schuh, Tom Cross and Peter Williams discovered a buffer overflow in the parser for UTF-8 URLs, which may lead to the execution of arbitrary code.

advisories/debian/debian-new-xulrunner-packages-fix-several-vulnerabilities-73165
Debian: New hf packages fix execution of arbitrary code (Nov 22)

Steve Kemp discovered that hf, an amateur-radio protocol suite using a soundcard as a modem, insecurely tried to execute an external command which could lead to the elevation of privileges for local users.

advisories/debian/debian-new-hf-packages-fix-execution-of-arbitrary-code
Fedora 8 Update: thunderbird-2.0.0.18-1.fc8 (Nov 21)

This update update upgrades thunderbird packages to upstream version 2.0.0.18, which fixes multiple security issues detailed in upstream security advisories:

advisories/fedora/fedora-8-update-thunderbird-20018-1fc8-05-57-00-144468
Mandriva: Subject: [Security Announce] [ MDVSA-2008:234 ] kernel (Nov 21)

Some vulnerabilities were discovered and corrected in the Linux 2.6 kernel: Buffer overflow in the hfsplus_find_cat function in fs/hfsplus/catalog.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.28-rc1 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption or system crash) via an hfsplus filesystem image with an invalid catalog namelength field, related to the hfsplus_cat_build_key_uni function. (CVE-2008-4933)
Mandriva: Subject: [Security Announce] [ MDVSA-2008:235 ] mozilla-thunderbird (Nov 21)

A number of security vulnerabilities have been discovered and corrected in the latest Mozilla Thunderbird program, version 2.0.0.18 (CVE-2008-5012, CVE-2008-5014, CVE-2008-5016, CVE-2008-5017, CVE-2008-5018, CVE-2008-5021, CVE-2008-5022, CVE-2008-5024, CVE-2008-5052). This update provides the latest Thunderbird to correct these issues.
Mandriva: Subject: [Security Announce] [ MDVSA-2008:233 ] libcdaudio (Nov 20)

A heap overflow was found in the CDDB retrieval code of libcdaudio, which could result in the execution of arbitrary code (CVE-2008-5030). In addition, the fixes for CVE-2005-0706 were not applied to newer libcdaudio packages as shipped with Mandriva Linux, so the patch to fix that issue has been applied to 2008.1 and 2009.0 (this was originally fixed in MDKSA-2005:075). This issue is a buffer overflow flaw found by Joseph VanAndel. Corporate 3.0 has this fix already applied. The updated packages have been patched to prevent these issues.
RedHat: Critical: java-1.4.2-ibm security update (Nov 25)

Updated java-1.4.2-ibm packages that fix several security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Extras, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Extras, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Supplementary. Multiple vulnerabilities with unsigned applets were reported. A remote attacker could misuse an unsigned applet to connect to localhost services running on the host running the applet. (CVE-2008-3104)

advisories/red-hat/redhat-critical-java-142-ibm-security-update-6214
RedHat: Important: tog-pegasus security update (Nov 25)

Updated tog-pegasus packages that fix security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. Red Hat defines additional security enhancements for OpenGroup Pegasus WBEM services in addition to those defined by the upstream OpenGroup Pegasus release. For details regarding these enhancements, refer to the file "README.RedHat.Security", included in the Red Hat tog-pegasus package. This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

advisories/red-hat/redhat-important-tog-pegasus-security-update-RHSA-2008-1001-01
RedHat: Moderate: vim security update (Nov 25)

Updated vim packages that fix security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.Several input sanitization flaws were found in Vim's keyword and tag handling. If Vim looked up a document's maliciously crafted tag or keyword, it was possible to execute arbitrary code as the user running Vim. (CVE-2008-4101)

advisories/red-hat/redhat-moderate-vim-security-update-RHSA-2008-0580-01
RedHat: Moderate: vim security update (Nov 25)

Several input sanitization flaws were found in Vim's keyword and tag handling. If Vim looked up a document's maliciously crafted tag or keyword, it was possible to execute arbitrary code as the user running Vim. (CVE-2008-4101)

advisories/red-hat/redhat-moderate-vim-security-update-RHSA-2008-0580-01
RedHat: Moderate: vim security update (Nov 25)

Updated vim packages that fix security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1.Several input sanitization flaws were found in Vim's keyword and tag handling. If Vim looked up a document's maliciously crafted tag or keyword, it was possible to execute arbitrary code as the user running Vim. (CVE-2008-4101)

advisories/red-hat/redhat-moderate-vim-security-update-RHSA-2008-0580-01
Slackware: mozilla-thunderbird (Nov 21)

New mozilla-thunderbird packages are available for Slackware 10.2, 11.0, 12.0, 12.1, and -current to fix security issues. More details about the issues may be found on the Mozilla site: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/known-vulnerabilities/thunderbird-2.0/
Slackware: libxml2 (Nov 20)

New libxml2 packages are available for Slackware 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 11.0, 12.0, 12.1, and -current to fix security issues including a denial or service or the possible execution of arbitrary code if untrusted XML is processed. More details about the issues may be found in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database:
Ubuntu: Gaim vulnerability (Nov 24)

It was discovered that Gaim did not properly handle certain malformed messages in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted message and possibly execute arbitrary code with user privileges. (CVE-2008-2927)

advisories/ubuntu/ubuntu-gaim-vulnerability
Ubuntu: WebKit vulnerability (Nov 24)

It was discovered that WebKit did not properly handle Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) import statements. If a user were tricked into opening a malicious website, an attacker could cause a browser crash and possibly execute arbitrary code with user privileges.

advisories/ubuntu/ubuntu-webkit-vulnerability
Ubuntu: Pidgin vulnerabilities (Nov 24)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle certain malformed messages in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted message and possibly execute arbitrary code with user privileges. (CVE-2008-2927)

advisories/ubuntu/ubuntu-pidgin-vulnerabilities
Ubuntu: HPLIP vulnerabilities (Nov 24)

USN-674-1 provided packages to fix vulnerabilities in HPLIP. Due to an internal archive problem, the updates for Ubuntu 7.10 would not install properly. This update provides fixed packages for Ubuntu 7.10. We apologize for the inconvenience. It was discovered that the hpssd tool of hplip did not validate privileges in the alert-mailing function. A local attacker could exploit this to gain privileges and send e-mail messages from the account of the hplip user. This update alters hplip behaviour by preventing users from setting alerts and by moving alert configuration to a root-controlled /etc/hp/alerts.conf file. (CVE-2008-2940)

advisories/ubuntu/ubuntu-hplip-vulnerabilities-41936