9.3 - USN-886-1

A security issue affects the following Ubuntu releases:

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Ubuntu 8.10 Ubuntu 9.04 Ubuntu 9.10

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 8.04 LTS:
pidgin 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.8

Ubuntu 8.10:
pidgin 1:2.5.2-0ubuntu1.6

Ubuntu 9.04:
pidgin 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu8.5

Ubuntu 9.10:
pidgin 1:2.6.2-1ubuntu7.1

After a standard system upgrade you need to restart Pidgin to effect the necessary changes.

Details follow:

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle certain topic messages in the IRC protocol handler. If a user were tricked into connecting to a malicious IRC server, an attacker could cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-2703)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly enforce the "require TLS/SSL" setting when connecting to certain older Jabber servers. If a remote attacker were able to perform a man-in-the-middle attack, this flaw could be exploited to view sensitive information. This issue only affected Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-3026)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle certain SLP invite messages in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted invite message and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-3083)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle certain errors in the XMPP protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted message and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-3085)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle malformed contact-list data in the OSCAR protocol handler. A remote attacker could send specially crafted contact-list data and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2009-3615)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle custom smiley requests in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted filename in a custom smiley request and obtain arbitrary files via directory traversal. This issue only affected Ubuntu 8.10, Ubuntu 9.04 and Ubuntu 9.10. (CVE-2010-0013)

Pidgin for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS was also updated to fix connection issues with the MSN protocol.

USN-675-1 and USN-781-1 provided updated Pidgin packages to fix multiple security vulnerabilities in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. The security patches to fix CVE-2008-2955 and CVE-2009-1376 were incomplete. This update corrects the problem. Original advisory details:

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle file transfers
containing a long filename and special characters in the MSN protocol
handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted filename in a
file transfer request and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of
service. (CVE-2008-2955)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle certain malformed
messages in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a
specially crafted message and possibly execute arbitrary code with user
privileges. (CVE-2009-1376)