Secure Coding mailing list archives

HNS - Biggest X Window security hole since 2000

From: Ken at krvw.com (Kenneth R. van Wyk)
Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 11:12:59 -0400

Stories about this (below) X bug and the DHS-sponsored project that found it 
have been floating around the net all week.  This story caught my eye, 
though:

http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=3994

The author claims, "This flaw, caused by something as seemingly harmless as a 
missing closing parenthesis, allowed local users to execute code with root 
privileges, giving them the ability to overwrite system files or initiate 
denial of service attacks."

So, it sounds like a single byte change in the entire X src tree could fix a 
bug that could give an attacker complete control of a system.  Lovely...

Cheers,

Ken van Wyk
-- 
KRvW Associates, LLC
http://www.KRvW.com
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Current thread:

HNS - Biggest X Window security hole since 2000 Kenneth R. van Wyk (May 04)
- HNS - Biggest X Window security hole since 2000 Gadi Evron (May 04)
  - HNS - Biggest X Window security hole since 2000 Kenneth R. van Wyk (May 04)
    - HNS - Biggest X Window security hole since 2000 Greenarrow 1 (May 04)
- HNS - Biggest X Window security hole since 2000 ljknews (May 05)
  - HNS - Biggest X Window security hole since 2000 der Mouse (May 06)
    - HNS - Biggest X Window security hole since 2000 Robert C. Seacord (May 08)
    - HNS - Biggest X Window security hole since 2000 Tim Hollebeek (May 08)
  - HNS - Biggest X Window security hole since 2000 Florian Weimer (May 07)