GNU Project Debugger (GDB) before 7.5, when .debug_gdb_scripts is defined, automatically loads certain files from the current working directory, which allows local users to gain privileges via crafted files such as Python scripts.

An update of the crash package has been released.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 host has one or more packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability that has been acknowledged by the vendor but will not be patched.

  - gdb: object file .debug_gdb_scripts section improper input validation (CVE-2011-4355)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied on the package manager's report that the package is installed.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 host has one or more packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities that have been acknowledged by the vendor but will not be patched.

  - gdb: object file .debug_gdb_scripts section improper input validation (CVE-2011-4355)

  - gdb: Malformed section in an ELF binary or a core file can cause memory exhaustion (CVE-2017-9778)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied on the package manager's report that the package is installed.

GDB tried to auto-load certain files (such as GDB scripts, Python scripts, and a thread debugging library) from the current working directory when debugging programs. This could result in the execution of arbitrary code with the user's privileges when GDB was run in a directory that has untrusted content. (CVE-2011-4355)

With this update, GDB no longer auto-loads files from the current directory and only trusts certain system directories by default. The list of trusted directories can be viewed and modified using the 'show auto-load safe-path' and 'set auto-load safe-path' GDB commands. Refer to the GDB manual, linked to in the References, for further information.

The remote Oracle Linux 6 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ELSA-2013-0522 advisory.

    - Fix CVE-2011-4355 gdb: arbitrary code execution via .debug_gdb_scripts'       (Jan Kratochvil, RH BZ 756116).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

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

Updated gdb packages that fix one security issue and three bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate 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.

The GNU Debugger (GDB) allows debugging of programs written in C, C++, Java, and other languages by executing them in a controlled fashion and then printing out their data.

GDB tried to auto-load certain files (such as GDB scripts, Python scripts, and a thread debugging library) from the current working directory when debugging programs. This could result in the execution of arbitrary code with the user's privileges when GDB was run in a directory that has untrusted content. (CVE-2011-4355)

With this update, GDB no longer auto-loads files from the current directory and only trusts certain system directories by default. The list of trusted directories can be viewed and modified using the 'show auto-load safe-path' and 'set auto-load safe-path' GDB commands. Refer to the GDB manual, linked to in the References, for further information.

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* When a struct member was at an offset greater than 256 MB, the resulting bit position within the struct overflowed and caused an invalid memory access by GDB. With this update, the code has been modified to ensure that GDB can access such positions. (BZ#795424)

* When a thread list of the core file became corrupted, GDB did not print this list but displayed the 'Cannot find new threads: generic error' error message instead. With this update, GDB has been modified and it now prints the thread list of the core file as expected.
(BZ#811648)

* GDB did not properly handle debugging of multiple binaries with the same build ID. This update modifies GDB to use symbolic links created for particular binaries so that debugging of binaries that share a build ID now proceeds as expected. Debugging of live programs and core files is now more user-friendly. (BZ#836966)

All users of gdb are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

GDB tried to auto-load certain files (such as GDB scripts, Python scripts, and a thread debugging library) from the current working directory when debugging programs. This could result in the execution of arbitrary code with the user's privileges when GDB was run in a directory that has untrusted content. (CVE-2011-4355)

With this update, GDB no longer auto-loads files from the current directory and only trusts certain system directories by default. The list of trusted directories can be viewed and modified using the 'show auto-load safe-path' and 'set auto-load safe-path' GDB commands. Refer to the GDB manual, linked to in the References, for further information.

This update also fixes the following bugs :

  - When a struct member was at an offset greater than 256     MB, the resulting bit position within the struct     overflowed and caused an invalid memory access by GDB.
    With this update, the code has been modified to ensure     that GDB can access such positions.

  - When a thread list of the core file became corrupted,     GDB did not print this list but displayed the 'Cannot     find new threads: generic error' error message instead.
    With this update, GDB has been modified and it now     prints the thread list of the core file as expected.

  - GDB did not properly handle debugging of multiple     binaries with the same build ID. This update modifies     GDB to use symbolic links created for particular     binaries so that debugging of binaries that share a     build ID now proceeds as expected. Debugging of live     programs and core files is now more user-friendly.

Update 'set auto-load' patchset and the --with-auto-load-safe-path setting.

Security fix for loading untrusted inferiors, see 'set auto-load'.

Security fix for loading untrusted inferiors, see 'set auto-load'.

Workaround crashes from stale frame_info pointer (BZ 804256).

Security fix for loading untrusted inferiors, see 'set auto-load' (BZ 756117).

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.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
203822	Photon OS 3.0: Crash PHSA-2023-3.0-0601	Nessus	PhotonOS Local Security Checks	critical
203529	Photon OS 4.0: Crash PHSA-2023-4.0-0414	Nessus	PhotonOS Local Security Checks	critical
198441	RHEL 4 : gdb (Unpatched Vulnerability)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	critical
198430	RHEL 5 : gdb (Unpatched Vulnerability)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
69718	Amazon Linux AMI : gdb (ALAS-2013-159)	Nessus	Amazon Linux Local Security Checks	medium
68758	Oracle Linux 6 : gdb (ELSA-2013-0522)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	critical
65153	CentOS 6 : gdb (CESA-2013:0522)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	medium
64951	Scientific Linux Security Update : gdb on SL6.x i386/x86_64 (20130221)	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	medium
64769	RHEL 6 : gdb (RHSA-2013:0522)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
61585	Fedora 16 : gdb-7.3.50.20110722-16.fc16 (2012-6614)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	medium
58999	Fedora 17 : gdb-7.4.50.20120120-42.fc17 (2012-6635)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	medium

Detections

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CVE-2011-4355

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Tenable Plugins

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