KDE 2 and KDE 3.1.1 and earlier 3.x versions allows attackers to execute arbitrary commands via (1) PostScript (PS) or (2) PDF files, related to missing -dPARANOIDSAFER and -dSAFER arguments when using the kghostview Ghostscript viewer.

The KDE team discovered a vulnerability in the way KDE uses Ghostscript software for processing of PostScript (PS) and PDF files.
An attacker could provide a malicious PostScript or PDF file via mail or websites that could lead to executing arbitrary commands under the privileges of the user viewing the file or when the browser generates a directory listing with thumbnails.

A vulnerability was discovered by the KDE team in the way that KDE uses Ghostscript for processing PostScript and PDF files. A malicious attacker could provide a carefully constructed PDF or PostScript file to an end user (via web or mail) that could lead to the execution of arbitrary commands as the user viewing the file. The vulnerability can be triggered even by the browser generating a directory listing with thumbnails.

All users are encouraged to upgrade to these new kdegraphics, kdebase, and kdelibs packages that contain patches to correct the problem. This issue is corrected upstream in KDE 3.0.5b and KDE 3.1.1a.

Update :

The previous update was missing a fix in kdebase specific to HP machines. This has been corrected.

This erratum provides updated KDE packages to resolve a vulnerability in the handling of PostScript and PDF files.

KDE is a graphical desktop environment for the X Window System.

KDE versions up to and including KDE 3.1.1 have a vulnerability caused by neglecting to use the -dSAFER option when previewing in Konquerer.
An attacker can prepare a malicious PostScript or PDF file which provides the attacker with access to the victim's account and privileges when the victim opens this malicious file for viewing, or when the victim browses a directory containing this malicious file with file previews enabled in the browser.

This erratum provides packages containing KDE 2.2.2 with backported patches to correct these issues.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
15133	Debian DSA-296-1 : kdebase - insecure execution	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
15130	Debian DSA-293-1 : kdelibs - insecure execution	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
15121	Debian DSA-284-1 : kdegraphics - insecure execution	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
14033	Mandrake Linux Security Advisory : kde3 (MDKSA-2003:049-1)	Nessus	Mandriva Local Security Checks	high
12389	RHEL 2.1 : kdebase (RHSA-2003:146)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2003-0204

critical

Tenable Plugins

high

high

high

high

high