[ GLSA 200909-13 ] irssi: Execution of arbitrary code

[GLSA]

Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Title: irssi: Execution of arbitrary code (GLSA 200909-13)
Severity: high
Exploitable: remote
Date: September 12, 2009
Bug(s): #271875
ID: 200909-13

Synopsis


A remotely exploitable off-by-one error leading to a heap overflow was
found in irssi which might result in the execution of arbitrary code.


Background


irssi is a modular textUI IRC client with IPv6 support.


Affected Packages

Package: net-irc/irssi
Vulnerable: < 0.8.13-r1
Unaffected: >= 0.8.13-r1
Architectures: All supported architectures


Description


Nemo discovered an off-by-one error leading to a heap overflow in
irssi's event_wallops() parsing function.


Impact


A remote attacker might entice a user to connect to a malicious IRC
server, use a man-in-the-middle attack to redirect a user to such a
server or use ircop rights to send a specially crafted WALLOPS message,
which might result in the execution of arbitrary code with the
privileges of the user running irssi.


Workaround


There is no known workaround at this time.


Resolution


All irssi users should upgrade to the latest version: