[ GLSA 200810-02 ] Portage: Untrusted search path local root vulnerability

[GLSA]

Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Title: Portage: Untrusted search path local root vulnerability (GLSA 200810-02)
Severity: high
Exploitable: local
Date: October 09, 2008
Bug(s): #239560
ID: 200810-02

Synopsis


A search path vulnerability in Portage allows local attackers to execute
commands with root privileges if emerge is called from untrusted
directories.


Background


Portage is Gentoo's package manager which is responsible for
installing, compiling and updating all packages on the system through
the Gentoo rsync tree.


Affected Packages

Package: sys-apps/portage
Vulnerable: < 2.1.4.5
Unaffected: >= 2.1.4.5
Architectures: All supported architectures


Description


The Gentoo Security Team discovered that several ebuilds, such as
sys-apps/portage, net-mail/fetchmail or app-editors/leo execute Python
code using "python -c", which includes the current working directory in
Python's module search path. For several ebuild functions, Portage did
not change the working directory from emerge's working directory.


Impact


A local attacker could place a specially crafted Python module in a
directory (such as /tmp) and entice the root user to run commands such
as "emerge sys-apps/portage" from that directory, resulting in the
execution of arbitrary Python code with root privileges.


Workaround


Do not run "emerge" from untrusted working directories.


Resolution


All Portage users should upgrade to the latest version: