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Bug 519116

Summary: dev-python/ipython: insecure loading of the MathJax library
Product: Gentoo Security Reporter: Agostino Sarubbo <ago>
Component: VulnerabilitiesAssignee: Gentoo Security <security>
Status: RESOLVED INVALID    
Severity: minor CC: python
Priority: Normal    
Version: unspecified   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
URL: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1125937
Whiteboard: B4 [upstream/ebuild]
Package list:
Runtime testing required: ---

Description Agostino Sarubbo gentoo-dev 2014-08-05 08:41:59 UTC
From ${URL} :

It was reported [1],[2] that when an IPython notebook is used without encryption (that is, running over HTTP instead of HTTPS), the MathJax library is loaded over HTTP. A man-in-the-middle attacker could potentially use this flaw to execute arbitrary code in a 
local IPython notebook by modifying the loaded MathJax JavaScript code.

This issue is fixed in the upcoming version 2.2 with the patch available at [3].

The report indicates versions 0.12 to 2.1 are vulnerable to this flaw. The version of IPython shipped with EPEL5 (0.8.4) is not vulnerable to this issue as the vulnerable code that loads MathJax is not present.

[1] https://github.com/ipython/ipython/issues/6246
[2] http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2014/q3/272
[3] https://github.com/ipython/ipython/commit/cf793ebc4f9e8483f104667e4c73748357fa8c56


@maintainer(s): after the bump, in case we need to stabilize the package, please let us know if it is ready for the stabilization or not.
Comment 1 Arfrever Frehtes Taifersar Arahesis 2014-08-05 08:57:30 UTC
dev-python/ipython ebuilds depend on dev-libs/mathjax and create $(python_get_sitedir)/IPython/html/static/mathjax symlinks to allow using IPython Notebook without network connection, so then there is no loading of MathJax using either HTTP or HTTPS.
(Even in the referenced commit, you can see comment "no local mathjax, serve from CDN".)
Comment 2 Ian Delaney (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2014-08-08 01:16:59 UTC
thanks Arfrever. This in summary means thus bug is simply not required or valid.  However, ipython-2.2 is now getting close which will 'fix' it anyway, though what might cause some angst is cleanout of affected versions.
Comment 3 Arfrever Frehtes Taifersar Arahesis 2014-08-08 09:53:30 UTC
As explained earlier, this bug should be closed as RESOLVED INVALID.