Debian Security Advisory

ncurses -- local privilege escalation

Date Reported:

21 Nov 2000

Affected Packages:

ncurses-base
ncurses-bin
ncurses-term
libncurses5
libncurses5-dev
libncurses5-dbg

Vulnerable:

Yes

Security database references:

In Mitre's CVE dictionary: CVE-2000-1174.

More information:

The version of the ncurses display library shipped with Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 is vulnerable to several buffer overflows in the parsing of terminfo database files. This problem was discovered by Jouko Pynnönen <jouko@solutions.fi>. The problems are only exploitable in the presence of setuid binaries linked to ncurses which use these particular functions, including xmcd versions before 2.5pl1-7.1.

This problem is fixed in ncurses 5.0-6.0potato1 for Debian GNU/Linux 2.2, and in ncurses 5.0-8 for Debian Unstable.

Fixed in:

Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 (potato)

Source:: http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/source/ncurses_5.0-6.0potato1.dsc; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/source/ncurses_5.0-6.0potato1.diff.gz; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/source/ncurses_5.0.orig.tar.gz
Architecture-independent component:: http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-all/ncurses-base_5.0-6.0potato1_all.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-all/ncurses-term_5.0-6.0potato1_all.deb
Alpha:: http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-alpha/libncurses5-dbg_5.0-6.0potato1_alpha.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-alpha/libncurses5-dev_5.0-6.0potato1_alpha.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-alpha/libncurses5_5.0-6.0potato1_alpha.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-alpha/ncurses-bin_5.0-6.0potato1_alpha.deb
ARM:: http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-arm/libncurses5-dbg_5.0-6.0potato1_arm.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-arm/libncurses5-dev_5.0-6.0potato1_arm.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-arm/libncurses5_5.0-6.0potato1_arm.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-arm/ncurses-bin_5.0-6.0potato1_arm.deb
Intel IA32:: http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-i386/libncurses5-dbg_5.0-6.0potato1_i386.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-i386/libncurses5-dev_5.0-6.0potato1_i386.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-i386/libncurses5_5.0-6.0potato1_i386.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-i386/ncurses-bin_5.0-6.0potato1_i386.deb
Motorola 680x0:: http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-m68k/libncurses5-dbg_5.0-6.0potato1_m68k.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-m68k/libncurses5-dev_5.0-6.0potato1_m68k.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-m68k/libncurses5_5.0-6.0potato1_m68k.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-m68k/ncurses-bin_5.0-6.0potato1_m68k.deb
PowerPC:: http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-powerpc/libncurses5-dbg_5.0-6.0potato1_powerpc.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-powerpc/libncurses5-dev_5.0-6.0potato1_powerpc.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-powerpc/libncurses5_5.0-6.0potato1_powerpc.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-powerpc/ncurses-bin_5.0-6.0potato1_powerpc.deb
Sun SPARC:: http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-sparc/libncurses5-dbg_5.0-6.0potato1_sparc.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-sparc/libncurses5-dev_5.0-6.0potato1_sparc.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-sparc/libncurses5_5.0-6.0potato1_sparc.deb; http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-sparc/ncurses-bin_5.0-6.0potato1_sparc.deb