6.8 - USN-554-1

A security issue affects the following Ubuntu releases:

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Ubuntu 6.10 Ubuntu 7.04 Ubuntu 7.10

This advisory also applies to the corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu.

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

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS:
tetex-bin 3.0-13ubuntu6.1

Ubuntu 6.10:
tetex-bin 3.0-17ubuntu2.1

Ubuntu 7.04:
tetex-bin 3.0-27ubuntu1.2

Ubuntu 7.10:
texlive-extra-utils 2007-12ubuntu3.1

In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.

Details follow:

Bastien Roucaries discovered that dvips as included in tetex-bin and texlive-bin did not properly perform bounds checking. If a user or automated system were tricked into processing a specially crafted dvi file, dvips could be made to crash and execute code as the user invoking the program. (CVE-2007-5935)

Joachim Schrod discovered that the dviljk utilities created temporary files in an insecure way. Local users could exploit a race condition to create or overwrite files with the privileges of the user invoking the program. (CVE-2007-5936)

Joachim Schrod discovered that the dviljk utilities did not perform bounds checking in many instances. If a user or automated system were tricked into processing a specially crafted dvi file, the dviljk utilities could be made to crash and execute code as the user invoking the program. (CVE-2007-5937)