logwatch.pl in Logwatch 7.3.6 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via shell metacharacters in a log file name, as demonstrated via a crafted username to a Samba server.

The update of logwatch improves the input validation. Before it was possible by an attacker to use special characters in a log-file to execute arbitrary commands. (CVSS v2 Base Score: 8.5 (AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C))

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2011:0324 :

An updated logwatch package that fixes one security issue is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.

Logwatch is a customizable log analysis system. Logwatch parses through your system's logs for a given period of time and creates a report analyzing areas that you specify, in as much detail as you require.

A flaw was found in the way Logwatch processed log files. If an attacker were able to create a log file with a malicious file name, it could result in arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the root user when that log file is analyzed by Logwatch. (CVE-2011-1018)

Users of logwatch should upgrade to this updated package, which contains a backported patch to resolve this issue.

A flaw was found in the way Logwatch processed log files. If an attacker were able to create a log file with a malicious file name, it could result in arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the root user when that log file is analyzed by Logwatch. (CVE-2011-1018)

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-201203-20 (Logwatch: Arbitrary code execution)

    logwatch.pl does not properly sanitize log filenames against shell       metacharacters before passing them to the 'system()' function.
  Impact :

    A remote attacker could pass a specially crafted log filename to       Logwatch, possibly resulting in execution of arbitrary code with root       privileges or a Denial of Service condition.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround at this time.

An updated logwatch package that fixes one security issue is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.

Logwatch is a customizable log analysis system. Logwatch parses through your system's logs for a given period of time and creates a report analyzing areas that you specify, in as much detail as you require.

A flaw was found in the way Logwatch processed log files. If an attacker were able to create a log file with a malicious file name, it could result in arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the root user when that log file is analyzed by Logwatch. (CVE-2011-1018)

Users of logwatch should upgrade to this updated package, which contains a backported patch to resolve this issue.

Shell meta characters in log file names could lead to execution of arbitrary code. (CVE-2011-1018)

This update fixes CVE-2011-1018: Privilege escalation due improper sanitization of special characters in log file names

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 / 6 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the RHSA-2011:0324 advisory.

  - logwatch: Privilege escalation due improper sanitization of special characters in log file names     (CVE-2011-1018)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Dominik George discovered that Logwatch does not guard against shell meta-characters in crafted log file names (such as those produced by Samba). As a result, an attacker might be able to execute shell commands on the system running Logwatch.

Dominik George discovered that logwatch did not properly sanitize log file names that were passed to the shell as part of a command. If a remote attacker were able to generate specially crafted filenames (for example, via Samba logging), they could execute arbitrary code with root privileges.

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
75639	openSUSE Security Update : logwatch (openSUSE-SU-2011:0242-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	critical
68219	Oracle Linux 5 / 6 : logwatch (ELSA-2011-0324)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	critical
60980	Scientific Linux Security Update : logwatch on SL5.x, SL6.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	critical
59612	GLSA-201203-20 : Logwatch: Arbitrary code execution	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	critical
53767	openSUSE Security Update : logwatch (openSUSE-SU-2011:0242-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	critical
53424	CentOS 5 : logwatch (CESA-2011:0324)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	critical
53228	SuSE 11.1 Security Update : logwatch (SAT Patch Number 4236)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	critical
52624	Fedora 15 : logwatch-7.3.6-66.20110203svn25.fc15 (2011-2396)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	critical
52623	Fedora 14 : logwatch-7.3.6-60.fc14 (2011-2328)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	critical
52622	Fedora 13 : logwatch-7.3.6-55.fc13 (2011-2318)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	critical
52578	RHEL 5 / 6 : logwatch (RHSA-2011:0324)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	critical
52549	Debian DSA-2182-1 : logwatch - shell command injection	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	critical
52480	Ubuntu 8.04 LTS / 9.10 / 10.04 LTS / 10.10 : logwatch vulnerability (USN-1078-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	critical

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2011-1018

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