Re: [ GLSA 200603-23 ] NetHack, Slash'EM, Falcon's Eye: Local privilege escalation

[neeko () feelingsinister net]

Hello everyone.

Doesn't the included text from the advisory really make it sound more like a 
problem with their system for managing games?  It doesn't point out any flaw 
in nethack in general, just behavior that's unexpected/unwanted/uncontrollable
in their system. 

Are any other distributions/platforms vulnerable to a problem in nethack like
this?  Sounds like it'd be big news, considering the install base of these
games.  

If this problem is on their end, are other games/applications able to trigger
it?

They've essentially wiped these fundamental applications (sorry) off their
tree for the time being, that's pretty severe.

Does anyone have any insight into this?  I'm a big nethack fan..

Thanks.

--

J.Roberts (Neeko) 


> Description
> ===========
>
> NetHack, Slash'EM and Falcon's Eye have been found to be incompatible
> with the system used for managing games on Gentoo Linux. As a result,
> they cannot be played securely on systems with multiple users.
>
> Impact
> ======
>
> A local user who is a member of group "games" may be able to modify the
> state data used by NetHack, Slash'EM or Falcon's Eye to trigger the
> execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of other players.
> Additionally, the games may create save game files in a manner not
> suitable for use on Gentoo Linux, potentially allowing a local user to
> create or overwrite files with the permissions of other players.