Security issues

[Chris Rees]

On 30 May 2013 08:15, <kaltheat at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 12:45:50PM +0200, Niclas Zeising wrote:
> > On 2013-05-27 23:11, kaltheat at googlemail.com wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > don't know if I'm right here, but there seem to be various security
issues with
> > > X-libs[1] and portaudit isn't complaining about it, it's not listed
in vuxml
> > > either. I think it would be right to list the warnings.
> >
> > The issues are known, but not very serious.  We are waiting for proper
> > releases from freedesktop to not have to juggle a ton of local patches,
> > which quickly becomes a nightmare.
> > Regards!
> > --
> > Niclas
>
> Why are these issues considered to be not very serious?
> I read somewhere that when xorg-server is compiled with setuid bit set an
attacker
> could gain root access by using buffer overflow technique. I think that
SUID is a
> default option.
> And why wouldn't it be fine if users get informed about this by portaudit
or vuxml
> and they can decide on their own what they consider serious and what not?

A buffer overflow is where a string (for example) has more characters put
into it than it can store.

On extremely rare occasions, such an overflow can mean that code just after
the string can be overwritten, and in theory someone can gain shell
access.  The Morris worm did this.

Almost always, the worst that can happen is a crash; many technologies work
against this (randomised pointers, data NX bits).

Chris

> I understand that patching could become a nightmare, but I would think
that under
> certain circumstances it would be right to dream that nightmare. But
where is
> that red line after that patching would be the right thing?
>
> I don't want to blame anyone or call the expertise of port maintainers
into
> question, I only want to learn.
>
> Regards,
> kaltheat
>
>
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