cipher.c in the Cipher API in libpurple in Pidgin before 2.7.10 retains encryption-key data in process memory, which might allow local users to obtain sensitive information by reading a core file or other representation of memory contents.

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - cipher.c in the Cipher API in libpurple in Pidgin before 2.7.10 retains encryption-key data in process     memory, which might allow local users to obtain sensitive information by reading a core file or other     representation of memory contents. (CVE-2011-4922)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

The remote Oracle Linux 6 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2011-0616 advisory.

  - libymsg.c in the Yahoo! protocol plugin in libpurple in Pidgin 2.6.0 through 2.7.10 allows (1) remote     authenticated users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and application crash) via a     malformed YMSG notification packet, and allows (2) remote Yahoo! servers to cause a denial of service     (NULL pointer dereference and application crash) via a malformed YMSG SMS message. (CVE-2011-1091)

  - cipher.c in the Cipher API in libpurple in Pidgin before 2.7.10 retains encryption-key data in process     memory, which might allow local users to obtain sensitive information by reading a core file or other     representation of memory contents. (CVE-2011-4922)

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

Evgeny Boger discovered that Pidgin incorrectly handled buddy list messages in the AIM and ICQ protocol handlers. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted message and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, 11.04 and 11.10. (CVE-2011-4601)

Thijs Alkemade discovered that Pidgin incorrectly handled malformed voice and video chat requests in the XMPP protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted message and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, 11.04 and 11.10. (CVE-2011-4602)

Diego Bauche Madero discovered that Pidgin incorrectly handled UTF-8 sequences in the SILC protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted message and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, 11.04 and 11.10. (CVE-2011-4603)

Julia Lawall discovered that Pidgin incorrectly cleared memory contents used in cryptographic operations. An attacker could exploit this to read the memory contents, leading to an information disclosure. This issue only affected Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. (CVE-2011-4922)

Clemens Huebner and Kevin Stange discovered that Pidgin incorrectly handled nickname changes inside chat rooms in the XMPP protocol handler. A remote attacker could exploit this by changing nicknames, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 11.10.
(CVE-2011-4939)

Thijs Alkemade discovered that Pidgin incorrectly handled off-line instant messages in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted message and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, 11.04 and 11.10. (CVE-2012-1178)

Jose Valentin Gutierrez discovered that Pidgin incorrectly handled SOCKS5 proxy connections during file transfer requests in the XMPP protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted request and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of service.
This issue only affected Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and 11.10. (CVE-2012-2214)

Fabian Yamaguchi discovered that Pidgin incorrectly handled malformed messages in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted message and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2012-2318)

Ulf Harnhammar discovered that Pidgin incorrectly handled messages with in-line images in the MXit protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted message and possibly execute arbitrary code with user privileges. (CVE-2012-3374).

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.

Updated pidgin packages that fix multiple security issues and various bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

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

Pidgin is an instant messaging program which can log in to multiple accounts on multiple instant messaging networks simultaneously.

Multiple NULL pointer dereference flaws were found in the way the Pidgin Yahoo! Messenger Protocol plug-in handled malformed YMSG packets. A remote attacker could use these flaws to crash Pidgin via a specially crafted notification message. (CVE-2011-1091)

Red Hat would like to thank the Pidgin project for reporting these issues. Upstream acknowledges Marius Wachtler as the original reporter.

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* Previous versions of the pidgin package did not properly clear certain data structures used in libpurple/cipher.c when attempting to free them. Partial information could potentially be extracted from the incorrectly cleared regions of the previously freed memory. With this update, data structures are properly cleared when freed. (BZ#684685)

* This erratum upgrades Pidgin to upstream version 2.7.9. For a list of all changes addressed in this upgrade, refer to http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/ChangeLog (BZ#616917)

* Some incomplete translations for the kn_IN and ta_IN locales have been corrected. (BZ#633860, BZ#640170)

Users of pidgin should upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these issues. Pidgin must be restarted for this update to take effect.

The version of Pidgin installed on the remote host is earlier than 2.7.10.  Such versions are potentially affected by an information disclosure vulnerability because the application does not properly clear certain data structures used in 'libpurple/cipher.c' prior to freeing.  An attacker, exploiting this flaw, could potentially extract partial information from memory regions freed by libpurple.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
217478	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2011-4922	Nessus	Misc.	high
181064	Oracle Linux 6 : pidgin (ELSA-2011-0616)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	high
59903	Ubuntu 10.04 LTS / 11.04 / 11.10 / 12.04 LTS : pidgin vulnerabilities (USN-1500-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	high
54598	RHEL 6 : pidgin (RHSA-2011:0616)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
52042	Pidgin < 2.7.10 Information Disclosure	Nessus	Windows	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2011-4922

high

Tenable Plugins

high

high

high

medium

medium