GLSA 200406-14: aspell: Buffer overflow in word-list-compress

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	aspell: Buffer overflow in word-list-compress
Date:	06/17/2004
Bugs:	#53389
ID:	200406-14

Synopsis

A bug in the aspell utility word-list-compress can allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code.

Background

aspell is a popular spell-checker. Dictionaries are available for many languages.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
app-text/aspell	<= 0.50.5-r3	>= 0.50.5-r4	All supported architectures

Description

aspell includes a utility for handling wordlists called word-list-compress. This utility fails to do proper bounds checking when processing words longer than 256 bytes.

Impact

If an attacker could entice a user to handle a wordlist containing very long word lengths it could result in the execution of arbitrary code with the permissions of the user running the program.

Workaround

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

Resolution

All users should upgrade to the latest available version of aspell.

    # emerge sync
    
    # emerge -pv ">=app-text/aspell-0.50.5-r4"
    # emerge ">=app-text/aspell-0.50.5-r4"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200406-14.xml

Concerns?

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at https://bugs.gentoo.org.