Local users can exploit an scponly flaw to gain root privileges, and scponly restricted users can use another vulnerability to evade shell restrictions.
| Package | net-misc/scponly on all architectures | 
|---|---|
| Affected versions | < 4.2 | 
| Unaffected versions | >= 4.2 | 
scponly is a restricted shell, allowing only a few predefined commands. It is often used as a complement to OpenSSH to provide access to remote users without providing any remote execution privileges.
Max Vozeler discovered that the scponlyc command allows users to chroot into arbitrary directories. Furthermore, Pekka Pessi reported that scponly insufficiently validates command-line parameters to a scp or rsync command.
A local attacker could gain root privileges by chrooting into arbitrary directories containing hardlinks to setuid programs. A remote scponly user could also send malicious parameters to a scp or rsync command that would allow to escape the shell restrictions and execute arbitrary programs.
There is no known workaround at this time.
All scponly users should upgrade to the latest version:
# emerge --sync # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-misc/scponly-4.2"
      Release date
      
      December 29, 2005
    
      Latest revision
      
      May 22, 2006: 02
    
      Severity
      
      high
    
      Exploitable
      
      local and remote
    
Bugzilla entries