gv: Exploitable Buffer Overflow

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
app-text/gv	<= 3.5.8-r3	>= 3.5.8-r4	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #59385

gv contains an exploitable buffer overflow that allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code.

2. Impact Information

gv is a PostScript and PDF viewer for X which provides a user interface for the ghostscript interpreter.

gv contains a buffer overflow vulnerability where an unsafe sscanf() call is used to interpret PDF and PostScript files.

By enticing a user to view a malformed PDF or PostScript file an attacker could execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the user running gv.

3. Resolution Information

There is no known workaround at this time. All users are encouraged to upgrade to the latest available version of gv.

All gv users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge sync
# emerge -pv ">=app-text/gv-3.5.8-r4"
# emerge ">=app-text/gv-3.5.8-r4"

4. References

Updated August 12, 2004

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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