Incorrect sanitation of the 302 redirect field in HTTP transport method of apt versions 1.4.8 and earlier can lead to content injection by a MITM attacker, potentially leading to remote code execution on the target machine.

The remote Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the USN-3863-1 advisory.

    Max Justicz discovered that APT incorrectly handled certain parameters during redirects. If a remote     attacker were able to perform a machine-in-the-middle attack, this flaw could potentially be used to     install altered packages.

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

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

Max Justicz discovered a vulnerability in APT, the high level package manager. The code handling HTTP redirects in the HTTP transport method doesn't properly sanitize fields transmitted over the wire. This vulnerability could be used by an attacker located as a man-in-the-middle between APT and a mirror to inject malicous content in the HTTP connection. This content could then be recognized as a valid package by APT and used later for code execution with root privileges on the target machine.

Since the vulnerability is present in the package manager itself, it is recommended to disable redirects in order to prevent exploitation during this upgrade only, using :

apt -o Acquire::http::AllowRedirect=false update apt -o Acquire::http::AllowRedirect=false upgrade

This is known to break some proxies when used against security.debian.org. If that happens, people can switch their security APT source to use the URL linked in the advisory.

(amended to refer to jessie in the sources.list entry below, instead of stable)

Max Justicz discovered a vulnerability in APT, the high level package manager. The code handling HTTP redirects in the HTTP transport method doesn't properly sanitize fields transmitted over the wire. This vulnerability could be used by an attacker located as a man-in-the-middle between APT and a mirror to inject malicous content in the HTTP connection. This content could then be recognized as a valid package by APT and used later for code execution with root privileges on the target machine.

Since the vulnerability is present in the package manager itself, it is recommended to disable redirects in order to prevent exploitation during this upgrade only, using :

apt -o Acquire::http::AllowRedirect=false update apt -o Acquire::http::AllowRedirect=false upgrade

This is known to break some proxies when used against security.debian.org. If that happens, people can switch their security APT source to use :

deb http://cdn-fastly.deb.debian.org/debian-security jessie/updates main

For Debian 8 'Jessie', this problem has been fixed in version 1.0.9.8.5.

We recommend that you upgrade your apt packages.

Specific upgrade instructions :

If upgrading using APT without redirect is not possible in your situation, you can manually download the files (using wget/curl) for your architecture using the URL provided below, verifying that the hashes match. Then you can install them using dpkg -i.

Architecture independent files :

http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
-doc_1.0.9.8.5_all.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 301106 47df9567e45fadcd2a56c0fd3d514d8136f2f206aa7baa47405c6fcb94824ab6 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-pkg-doc_1.0.9.8.5_all.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 750506 ce79b2ef272716b8da11f3fd0497ce0b7ee69c9c66d01669e8abbbfdde5e6256

amd64 architecture :

http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-pkg4.12_1.0.9.8.5_amd64.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 792126 295d9c69854a4cfbcb46001b09b853f5a098a04c986fc5ae01a0124c1c27e6bd http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-inst1.5_1.0.9.8.5_amd64.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 168896 f9615532b1577b3d1455fa51839ce91765f2860eb3a6810fb5e0de0c87253030 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
_1.0.9.8.5_amd64.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 1109308 4078748632abc19836d045f80f9d6933326065ca1d47367909a0cf7f29e7dfe8 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-pkg-dev_1.0.9.8.5_amd64.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 192950 09ef86d178977163b8cf0081d638d74e0a90c805dd77750c1d91354b6840b032 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
-utils_1.0.9.8.5_amd64.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 368396 87c55d9ccadcabd59674873c221357c774020c116afd978fb9df6d2d0303abf2 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
-transport-https_1.0.9.8.5_amd64.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 137230 f5a17422fd319ff5f6e3ea9a9e87d2508861830120125484130da8c1fd479df2

armel architecture :

http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-pkg4.12_1.0.9.8.5_armel.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 717002 80fe021d87f2444abdd7c5491e7a4bf9ab9cb2b8e6fa72d308905f4e0aad60d4 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-inst1.5_1.0.9.8.5_armel.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 166784 046fb962fa214c5d6acfb7344e7719f8c4898d87bf29ed3cd2115e3f6cdd14e9 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
_1.0.9.8.5_armel.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 1067404 f9a257d6aace1f222633e0432abf1d6946bad9dbd0ca18dccb288d50f17b895f http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-pkg-dev_1.0.9.8.5_armel.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 193768 4cb226f55132a68a2f5db925ada6147aaf052adb02301fb45fb0c2d1cfce36f0 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
-utils_1.0.9.8.5_armel.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 353178 38042838d8bc79642e5389be7d2d2d967cbf316805d4c8c2d6afbe1bc164aacc http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
-transport-https_1.0.9.8.5_armel.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 134932 755b6d22f5914f3153a1c15427e5221507b174c0a4c6b860ebd16234c9e9a146

armhf architecture :

http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-pkg4.12_1.0.9.8.5_armhf.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 734302 0f48f6d0406afdf0bd4d39e90e56460fab3d9b5fa4c91e2dca78ec22caf2fe2a http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-inst1.5_1.0.9.8.5_armhf.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 166556 284a1ffd529e1daab3c300be17a20f11450555be9c0af166d9796c18147a03ba http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
_1.0.9.8.5_armhf.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 1078212 08d85c30c8e4a6df0dced8e232a6c7639caa231acef4af8fdee2c1e07f0178ba http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-pkg-dev_1.0.9.8.5_armhf.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 193796 3a26bd79677b46ce0a992e2ac808c4bbd2d5b3fc37b57fc93c8efa114de1adaa http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
-utils_1.0.9.8.5_armhf.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 357074 19dec9ffc0fe4a86d6e61b5213e75c55ae6aaade6f3804f90e2e4034bbdc44d8 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
-transport-https_1.0.9.8.5_armhf.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 135072 06ba556c5218e58fd14119e3b08a08f685209a0cbe09f2328bd572cabc580bca

i386 architecture :

http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-pkg4.12_1.0.9.8.5_i386.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 800840 201b6cf4625ed175e6a024ac1f7ca6c526ca79d859753c125b02cd69e26c349d http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-inst1.5_1.0.9.8.5_i386.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 170484 5791661dd4ade72b61086fefdc209bd1f76ac7b7c812d6d4ba951b1a6232f0b9 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
_1.0.9.8.5_i386.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 1110418 13c230e9c544b1e67a8da413046bf1728526372170533b1a23e70cc99c40a228 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/lib apt-pkg-dev_1.0.9.8.5_i386.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 193780 c5b1bfa913ea2e2e332c228f5c5fe4dbc11ab334d0551a68ba6e87e94a51ffee http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
-utils_1.0.9.8.5_i386.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 371218 1a74b12c8bb6b3968a721f3aa96739073e4fe2ced9302792c533e21535bc9cf4 http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/a/apt/apt
-transport-https_1.0.9.8.5_i386.deb Size/SHA256 checksum: 139036 32148d92914a97df8bbb9f223e788dcbc7c39e570cf48e6759cb483a65b68666

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

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
121328	Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS : APT vulnerability (USN-3863-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	high
121317	Debian DSA-4371-1 : apt - security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
121314	Debian DLA-1637-1 : apt security update (amended)	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2019-3462

high

Tenable Plugins

high

high

high