Ubuntu 18.04 LTS : Cron vulnerabilities (USN-5259-2)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 160668

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 18.04 LTS host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-5259-2 advisory.

USN-5259-1 fixed several vulnerabilities in Cron. This update provides the corresponding update for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Original advisory details:

It was discovered that the postinst maintainer script in Cron unsafely

handled file permissions during package install or update operations.

An attacker could possibly use this issue to perform a privilege

escalation attack. (CVE-2017-9525)

Florian Weimer discovered that Cron incorrectly handled certain memory

operations during crontab file creation. An attacker could possibly use

this issue to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2019-9704)

It was discovered that Cron incorrectly handled user input during crontab

file creation. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial

of service. (CVE-2019-9705)

It was discovered that Cron contained a use-after-free vulnerability in

its force_rescan_user function. An attacker could possibly use this issue

to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2019-9706)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected cron package.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-5259-2

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 160668

File Name: ubuntu_USN-5259-2.nasl

Version: 1.5

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 5/6/2022

Updated: 8/27/2024

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.9

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.9

Temporal Score: 5.4

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2017-9525

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.7

Temporal Score: 6

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:cron, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts

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

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 5/6/2022

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/27/2015

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2017-9525, CVE-2019-9704, CVE-2019-9705, CVE-2019-9706

USN: 5259-2