CVS heap overflow vulnerability — GLSA 200405-12

CVS is subject to a heap overflow vulnerability allowing source repository compromise.

Affected packages

Background

CVS (Concurrent Versions System) is an open-source network-transparent version control system. It contains both a client utility and a server.

Description

Stefan Esser discovered a heap overflow in the CVS server, which can be triggered by sending malicious "Entry" lines and manipulating the flags related to that Entry. This vulnerability was proven to be exploitable.

Impact

A remote attacker can execute arbitrary code on the CVS server, with the rights of the CVS server. By default, Gentoo uses the "cvs" user to run the CVS server. In particular, this flaw allows a complete compromise of CVS source repositories. If you're not running a server, then you are not vulnerable.

Workaround

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

Resolution

 # emerge sync

 # emerge -pv ">=dev-util/cvs-1.11.16"
 # emerge ">=dev-util/cvs-1.11.16"

References

• E-matters advisory 07/2004
• CAN-2004-0396

Release date
May 20, 2004

Latest revision
May 20, 2004: 01

Severity
high

Exploitable
remote

Bugzilla entries

• 51460