Multiple extfs backend scripts for GNOME virtual file system (VFS) before 1.0.1 may allow remote attackers to perform certain unauthorized actions via a gnome-vfs URI.

This update fixes the following security problems :

  - The VFS scripts contained in GNOME are vulnerable to     attacks on temporary files as well as command execution     via shell meta-characters. These bugs can be exploited     by accessing a malformated archive file. (CVE-2004-0494)

  - Insufficient checks when processing CDDB queries could     lead to buffer and integer overflows. (CVE-2005-0706)

Alexander Larsson reports that some versions of gnome-vfs and MidnightCommander contain a number of `extfs' scripts that do not properly validate user input. If an attacker can cause her victim to process a specially crafted URI, arbitrary commands can be executed with the privileges of the victim.

An updated mc package that resolves several shell escape security issues is now available.

[Updated 5 January 2005] Packages have been updated to include the gmc and mcserv packages which were left out of the initial errata.

Midnight Commander (mc) is a visual shell much like a file manager.

Shell escape bugs have been discovered in several of the mc vfs backend scripts. An attacker who is able to influence a victim to open a specially crafted URI using mc could execute arbitrary commands as the victim. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2004-0494 to this issue.

Users of mc should upgrade to this updated package which contains backported patches and is not vulnerable to this issue.

Updated GNOME VFS packages that remove potential extfs-related vulnerabilities are now available.

GNOME VFS is the GNOME virtual file system. It provides a modular architecture and ships with several modules that implement support for file systems, HTTP, FTP, and others. The extfs backends make it possible to implement file systems for GNOME VFS using scripts.

Flaws have been found in several of the GNOME VFS extfs backend scripts. Red Hat Enterprise Linux ships with vulnerable scripts, but they are not used by default. An attacker who is able to influence a user to open a specially crafted URI using gnome-vfs could perform actions as that user. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2004-0494 to this issue.

Users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux should upgrade to these updated packages, which remove these unused scripts.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
41069	SuSE9 Security Update : gnome-vfs2,gnome-vfs2-doc (YOU Patch Number 10010)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
41068	SuSE9 Security Update : gnome-vfs (YOU Patch Number 10009)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
37096	FreeBSD : gnomevfs -- unsafe URI handling (7884d56f-f7a1-11d8-9837-000c41e2cdad)	Nessus	FreeBSD Local Security Checks	high
14740	RHEL 2.1 : mc (RHSA-2004:464)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
14211	RHEL 2.1 / 3 : gnome-vfs (RHSA-2004:373)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2004-0494

critical

Tenable Plugins

high

high

high

high

high