5.8 - USN-1297-1

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

- Ubuntu 11.10 - Ubuntu 11.04 - Ubuntu 10.10 - Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Summary:

Applications using Django could be made to crash or expose sensitive information.

Software Description: - python-django: High-level Python web development framework

Details:

Pall McMillan discovered that Django used the root namespace when storing cached session data. A remote attacker could exploit this to modify sessions. (CVE-2011-4136)

Paul McMillan discovered that Django would not timeout on arbitrary URLs when the application used URLFields. This could be exploited by a remote attacker to cause a denial of service via resource exhaustion. (CVE-2011-4137)

Paul McMillan discovered that while Django would check the validity of a URL via a HEAD request, it would instead use a GET request for the target of a redirect. This could potentially be used to trigger arbitrary GET requests via a crafted Location header. (CVE-2011-4138)

It was discovered that Django would sometimes use a request's HTTP Host header to construct a full URL. A remote attacker could exploit this to conduct host header cache poisoning attacks via a crafted request. (CVE-2011-4139)

Update instructions:

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 11.10:
python-django 1.3-2ubuntu1.1

Ubuntu 11.04:
python-django 1.2.5-1ubuntu1.1

Ubuntu 10.10:
python-django 1.2.3-1ubuntu0.2.10.10.3

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS:
python-django 1.1.1-2ubuntu1.4

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

References:
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1297-1
CVE-2011-4136, CVE-2011-4137, CVE-2011-4138, CVE-2011-4139

Package Information:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-django/1.3-2ubuntu1.1
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-django/1.2.5-1ubuntu1.1
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-django/1.2.3-1ubuntu0.2.10.10.3
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-django/1.1.1-2ubuntu1.4