Detections
Analytics
Debian DSA-228-1 : libmcrypt - buffer overflows and memory leak
high Nessus Plugin ID 15065
Synopsis
The remote Debian host is missing a security-related update.Description
Ilia Alshanetsky discovered several buffer overflows in libmcrypt, a decryption and encryption library, that originates from improper or lacking input validation. By passing input which is longer than expected to a number of functions (multiple functions are affected) the user can successfully make libmcrypt crash and may be able to insert arbitrary, malicious code which will be executed under the user libmcrypt runs as, e.g. inside a web server.Another vulnerability exists in the way libmcrypt loads algorithms via libtool. When different algorithms are loaded dynamically, each time an algorithm is loaded a small part of memory is leaked. In a persistent environment (web server) this could lead to a memory exhaustion attack that will exhaust all available memory by launching repeated requests at an application utilizing the mcrypt library.
Solution
Upgrade the libmcrypt packages.For the current stable distribution (woody) these problems have been fixed in version 2.5.0-1woody1.
The old stable distribution (potato) does not contain libmcrypt packages.
See Also
Plugin Details
Severity: High
ID: 15065
File Name: debian_DSA-228.nasl
Version: 1.21
Type: local
Agent: unix
Family: Debian Local Security Checks
Published: 9/29/2004
Updated: 1/4/2021
Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus
Risk Information
VPR
Risk Factor: Medium
Score: 5.2
CVSS v2
Risk Factor: High
Base Score: 7.5
Temporal Score: 5.5
Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Vulnerability Information
CPE: p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:libmcrypt, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:3.0
Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/Debian/release, Host/Debian/dpkg-l
Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available
Patch Publication Date: 1/14/2003
Reference Information
CVE: CVE-2003-0031, CVE-2003-0032
DSA: 228