Debian DSA-3597-1 : expat - security update

high Nessus Plugin ID 91506

Synopsis

The remote Debian host is missing a security-related update.

Description

Two related issues have been discovered in Expat, a C library for parsing XML.

- CVE-2012-6702 It was introduced when CVE-2012-0876 was addressed.
Stefan Sorensen discovered that the use of the function XML_Parse() seeds the random number generator generating repeated outputs for rand() calls.

- CVE-2016-5300 It is the product of an incomplete solution for CVE-2012-0876. The parser poorly seeds the random number generator allowing an attacker to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via an XML file with crafted identifiers.

You might need to manually restart programs and services using expat libraries.

Solution

Upgrade the expat packages.

For the stable distribution (jessie), these problems have been fixed in version 2.1.0-6+deb8u3.

See Also

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-6702

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-0876

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-5300

https://packages.debian.org/source/jessie/expat

https://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3597

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 91506

File Name: debian_DSA-3597.nasl

Version: 2.10

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 6/8/2016

Updated: 1/11/2021

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 5.8

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:expat, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:8.0

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/Debian/release, Host/Debian/dpkg-l

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 6/7/2016

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2012-6702, CVE-2016-5300

DSA: 3597