GLSA 200909-20: cURL: Certificate validation error

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	cURL: Certificate validation error
Date:	09/25/2009
Bugs:	#281515
ID:	200909-20

Synopsis

An error in the X.509 certificate handling of cURL might enable remote attackers to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks.

Background

cURL is a command line tool for transferring files with URL syntax, supporting numerous protocols.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
net-misc/curl	< 7.19.6	>= 7.19.6	All supported architectures

Description

Scott Cantor reported that cURL does not properly handle fields in X.509 certificates that contain an ASCII NUL (\0) character. Specifically, the processing of such fields is stopped at the first occurence of a NUL character. This type of vulnerability was recently discovered by Dan Kaminsky and Moxie Marlinspike.

Impact

A remote attacker might employ a specially crafted X.509 certificate (that for instance contains a NUL character in the Common Name field) to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All cURL users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-misc/curl-7.19.6"

References

CVE-2009-2417

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200909-20.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.