[ GLSA 200509-11 ] Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox: Buffer overflow

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200509-11
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                                            http://security.gentoo.org/
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  Severity: Normal
     Title: Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox: Buffer overflow
      Date: September 18, 2005
      Bugs: #105396
        ID: 200509-11

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Synopsis
========

Mozilla Suite and Firefox are vulnerable to a buffer overflow that
might be exploited to execute arbitrary code.

Background
==========

The Mozilla Suite is a popular all-in-one web browser that includes a
mail and news reader. Mozilla Firefox is the next-generation browser
from the Mozilla project. They both support Internationalized Domain
Names (IDN), which are domain names represented by local language
characters.

Affected packages
=================

    -------------------------------------------------------------------
     Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
  1 www-client/mozilla-firefox <= 1.0.6-r6 >= 1.0.6-r7
  2 www-client/mozilla <= 1.7.11-r2 >= 1.7.11-r3
  3 www-client/mozilla-firefox-bin <= 1.0.6-r2 Vulnerable!
  4 www-client/mozilla-bin <= 1.7.11 Vulnerable!
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
     NOTE: Certain packages are still vulnerable. Users should migrate
           to another package if one is available or wait for the
           existing packages to be marked stable by their
           architecture maintainers.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
     4 affected packages on all of their supported architectures.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------

Description
===========

The Mozilla Suite and Firefox are both vulnerable to a buffer overflow
while processing hostnames containing multiple hyphens. Note that
browsers that have disabled IDN support are immune to this flaw.

Impact
======

A remote attacker could setup a malicious site and entice a victim to
visit it, triggering the buffer overflow and potentially resulting in
the execution of arbitrary code with the victim's privileges.

Workaround
==========

You can disable the IDN support by opening the "about:config" page in
the browser and manually toggling the "network.IDN" property to
"false". Alternatively, you can install a security patch by following
the patching instructions given in References.

Resolution
==========

All Mozilla Firefox users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose
">=www-client/mozilla-firefox-1.0.6-r7"

All Mozilla Suite users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=www-client/mozilla-1.7.11-r3"

There are no fixed Mozilla Firefox or Mozilla Suite binaries yet. Users
of the mozilla-bin or mozilla-firefox-bin packages should either switch
to the source-based versions or apply the workaround.

References
==========

  [ 1 ] CAN-2005-2871
        http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2005-2871
  [ 2 ] Mozilla Foundation patching instructions
        https://addons.mozilla.org/messages/307259.html

Availability
============

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at
the Gentoo Security Website:

  http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200509-11.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_at_gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at
http://bugs.gentoo.org.

License
=======

Copyright 2005 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text
belongs to its owner(s).

The contents of this document are licensed under the
Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

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