Bug 100398 – media-libs/netpbm Arbitrary Postscript Code Execution Vulnerability

• Status: RESOLVED FIXED
• Product: Gentoo Security

[Description Jimi A. 2005-07-26 13:02:14 UTC]

Max Vozeler has reported a vulnerability in netpbm, which can be exploited by
malicious people to compromise a vulnerable system.

The vulnerability is caused due to pstopnm not using the "-dSAFER" option when
calling GhostScript to convert a PostScript file into a PBM, PGM, or PNM file.
This allows a malicious PostScript file to execute arbitrary commands on a
vulnerable system.

The vulnerability has been reported in version 10.0. Other versions may also be
affected.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.




Solution:
Only use pstopnm on trusted files.

http://secunia.com/advisories/16184/

[Comment 1 Sune Kloppenborg Jeppesen (RETIRED) 2005-07-26 13:11:47 UTC]

graphics please advise. 

[Comment 2 Karol Wojtaszek (RETIRED) 2005-07-27 01:46:29 UTC]

Created attachment 64419 [details, diff]
Fix by debian

Patch proposed by Debian

[Comment 3 Thierry Carrez (RETIRED) 2005-07-29 03:12:44 UTC]

graphics herd, please apply Debian patch

[Comment 4 Karol Wojtaszek (RETIRED) 2005-07-30 13:55:57 UTC]

Bumped to 10.28 and patched ebuild is in portage. This release fixes also
insecure temp file in ppmtompeg.

[Comment 5 Sune Kloppenborg Jeppesen (RETIRED) 2005-07-31 01:07:41 UTC]

Arches please test and mark stable. 

[Comment 6 René Nussbaumer (RETIRED) 2005-07-31 03:03:37 UTC]

Stable on hppa

[Comment 7 Markus Rothe (RETIRED) 2005-07-31 05:16:08 UTC]

stable on ppc64

[Comment 8 Fernando J. Pereda (RETIRED) 2005-07-31 06:08:29 UTC]

Stable on alpha

Cheers,
Ferdy

[Comment 9 Tobias Scherbaum (RETIRED) 2005-07-31 09:51:39 UTC]

ppc stable

[Comment 10 Herbie Hopkins (RETIRED) 2005-08-01 03:18:02 UTC]

Stable on amd64.

[Comment 11 Gustavo Zacarias (RETIRED) 2005-08-01 07:46:14 UTC]

sparc stable

[Comment 12 Thierry Carrez (RETIRED) 2005-08-02 02:06:33 UTC]

10.28 still misses hppa...
x86/maintainer: please also text and mark x86 stable

[Comment 13 Karol Wojtaszek (RETIRED) 2005-08-02 04:50:50 UTC]

x86 done

[Comment 14 René Nussbaumer (RETIRED) 2005-08-02 09:09:26 UTC]

Stable on hppa again.

[Comment 15 Thierry Carrez (RETIRED) 2005-08-03 00:41:28 UTC]

We must decide if we issue a GLSA on this one.

The problem here is that we consider as unexpected behavior the fact that
pstotext or pstopnm execute blindly the PS (potentially honoring the pipe
commands to execute arbitrary stuff). A behavior that we consider "as
documented" when it's for Ghostscript itself.

My position is that a vast majority of users won't know that pstotext and
pstopnm will execute Ghostscript in a way potentially allowing code execution,
so the GLSAs are justified. That said, they probably don't know that regular PS
files fed to Ghostscript also will. I would prefer -dSAFER enabled by default in
Ghostscript (which should come in a next version). Let's say GS is a
sufficiently low-level tool that its users know what they are doing, hence it's
not really considered a vulnerability ?

[Comment 16 Tavis Ormandy (RETIRED) 2005-08-03 00:51:10 UTC]

I would normally vote no, but following the pstopnm issue we should probably 
glsa this one as well, so YES.

[Comment 17 Bryan Østergaard (RETIRED) 2005-08-04 14:43:21 UTC]

Stable on ia64.

[Comment 18 Sune Kloppenborg Jeppesen (RETIRED) 2005-08-05 01:10:13 UTC]

Yeah pstotext sets a (bad?) precedent so I tend to vote Yes. 

[Comment 19 Thierry Carrez (RETIRED) 2005-08-05 01:12:38 UTC]

OK let's go then

[Comment 20 Thierry Carrez (RETIRED) 2005-08-05 04:02:00 UTC]

GLSA 200508-04
arm and mips should mark stable to benefit from GLSA

[Comment 21 Aaron Walker (RETIRED) 2005-08-05 11:06:38 UTC]

Stable on mips.