[ GLSA 200509-11 ] Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox: Buffer overflow

[Thierry Carrez <koon () gentoo org>]

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory                           GLSA 200509-11
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                                            http://security.gentoo.org/
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  Severity: Normal
     Title: Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox: Buffer overflow
      Date: September 18, 2005
      Bugs: #105396
        ID: 200509-11

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Synopsis
========

Mozilla Suite and Firefox are vulnerable to a buffer overflow that
might be exploited to execute arbitrary code.

Background
==========

The Mozilla Suite is a popular all-in-one web browser that includes a
mail and news reader. Mozilla Firefox is the next-generation browser
from the Mozilla project. They both support Internationalized Domain
Names (IDN), which are domain names represented by local language
characters.

Affected packages
=================

    -------------------------------------------------------------------
     Package                         /   Vulnerable   /     Unaffected
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
  1  www-client/mozilla-firefox          <= 1.0.6-r6       >= 1.0.6-r7
  2  www-client/mozilla                 <= 1.7.11-r2      >= 1.7.11-r3
  3  www-client/mozilla-firefox-bin      <= 1.0.6-r2       Vulnerable!
  4  www-client/mozilla-bin               <= 1.7.11        Vulnerable!
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
     NOTE: Certain packages are still vulnerable. Users should migrate
           to another package if one is available or wait for the
           existing packages to be marked stable by their
           architecture maintainers.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
     4 affected packages on all of their supported architectures.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------

Description
===========

The Mozilla Suite and Firefox are both vulnerable to a buffer overflow
while processing hostnames containing multiple hyphens. Note that
browsers that have disabled IDN support are immune to this flaw.

Impact
======

A remote attacker could setup a malicious site and entice a victim to
visit it, triggering the buffer overflow and potentially resulting in
the execution of arbitrary code with the victim's privileges.

Workaround
==========

You can disable the IDN support by opening the "about:config" page in
the browser and manually toggling the "network.IDN" property to
"false". Alternatively, you can install a security patch by following
the patching instructions given in References.

Resolution
==========

All Mozilla Firefox users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose
">=www-client/mozilla-firefox-1.0.6-r7"

All Mozilla Suite users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=www-client/mozilla-1.7.11-r3"

There are no fixed Mozilla Firefox or Mozilla Suite binaries yet. Users
of the mozilla-bin or mozilla-firefox-bin packages should either switch
to the source-based versions or apply the workaround.

References
==========

  [ 1 ] CAN-2005-2871
        http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2005-2871
  [ 2 ] Mozilla Foundation patching instructions
        https://addons.mozilla.org/messages/307259.html

Availability
============

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at
the Gentoo Security Website:

  http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200509-11.xml

Concerns?
=========

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the
confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost
importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to
security () gentoo org or alternatively, you may file a bug at
http://bugs.gentoo.org.

License
=======

Copyright 2005 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text
belongs to its owner(s).

The contents of this document are licensed under the
Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

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