It was discovered that there was a stack-based buffer overflow when parsing large GECOS fields in cracklib2, a pro-active password checker library.

For Debian 7 'Wheezy', this issue has been fixed in cracklib2 version 2.8.19-3+deb7u1.

We recommend that you upgrade your cracklib2 packages.

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.

This update for cracklib fixes the following issues :

  - Add patch to fix a buffer overflow in GECOS parser     (bsc#992966 CVE-2016-6318)

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

This update for cracklib fixes the following issues :

  - Add patch to fix a buffer overflow in GECOS parser     (bsc#992966 CVE-2016-6318)

This update was imported from the SUSE:SLE-12:Update update project.

This update for cracklib fixes a security issue and a bug: Security issue fixed :

  - Add patch to fix a stack-based buffer overflow in GECOS     parser (bsc#992966 CVE-2016-6318) The following non     security issue was fixed :

  - Call textdomain in cracklib-check main function so that     program output is translated accordingly. (bsc#928923)

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

Security fix for CVE-2016-6318

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

An update of the cracklib package has been released.

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

  - Stack-based buffer overflow in the FascistGecosUser function in lib/fascist.c in cracklib allows local     users to cause a denial of service (application crash) or gain privileges via a long GECOS field,     involving longbuffer. (CVE-2016-6318)

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

According to the version of the cracklib packages installed, the EulerOS installation on the remote host is affected by the following vulnerability :

  - CrackLib tests passwords to determine whether they     match certain security-oriented characteristics, with     the purpose of stopping users from choosing passwords     that are easy to guess. CrackLib performs several tests     on passwords: it tries to generate words from a     username and gecos entry and checks those words against     the password it checks for simplistic patterns in     passwords and it checks for the password in a     dictionary.CrackLib is actually a library containing a     particular C function which is used to check the     password, as well as other C functions. CrackLib is not     a replacement for a passwd program it must be used in     conjunction with an existing passwd program.Install the     cracklib package if you need a program to check users'     passwords to see if they are at least minimally secure.
    If you install CrackLib, you will also want to install     the cracklib-dicts package.Security Fix(es):Stack-based     buffer overflow in the FascistGecosUser function in     lib/fascist.c in cracklib allows local users to cause a     denial of service (application crash) or gain     privileges via a long GECOS field, involving     longbuffer.(CVE-2016-6318)

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

It was discovered that there was a stack-based buffer overflow when parsing large GECOS fields in cracklib2, a pro-active password checker library.

For Debian 8 'Jessie', this problem has been fixed in version 2.9.2-1+deb8u1.

We recommend that you upgrade your cracklib2 packages.

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.

An update of [cracklib,libevent,libgcrypt,httpd,glibc] packages for PhotonOS has been released.

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-201612-25 (CrackLib: Buffer overflow)

    A stack-based buffer overflow was discovered in the FascistGecosUser       function of lib/fascist.c.
  Impact :

    A local attacker could set a specially crafted GECOS field value in       &ldquo;/etc/passwd&rdquo;; possibly resulting in the execution of arbitrary code       with the privileges of the process, a Denial of Service condition, or the       escalation of privileges.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround at this time.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
93054	Debian DLA-599-1 : cracklib2 security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	8/22/2016	1/11/2021	high
93301	SUSE SLED12 / SLES12 Security Update : cracklib (SUSE-SU-2016:2107-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	9/2/2016	1/6/2021	high
93249	openSUSE Security Update : cracklib (openSUSE-2016-1041)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	9/1/2016	1/19/2021	high
93341	SUSE SLES11 Security Update : cracklib (SUSE-SU-2016:2211-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	9/6/2016	1/19/2021	high
95686	Fedora 25 : cracklib (2016-bfa785e39e)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	12/12/2016	1/11/2021	high
121681	Photon OS 1.0: Cracklib PHSA-2017-0013	Nessus	PhotonOS Local Security Checks	2/7/2019	7/22/2024	high
219879	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2016-6318	Nessus	Misc.	3/4/2025	3/4/2025	high
95684	Fedora 24 : cracklib (2016-b601141219)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	12/12/2016	1/11/2021	high
131593	EulerOS 2.0 SP2 : cracklib (EulerOS-SA-2019-2439)	Nessus	Huawei Local Security Checks	12/4/2019	4/8/2024	high
136836	Debian DLA-2220-1 : cracklib2 security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	5/26/2020	3/8/2024	high
111862	Photon OS 1.0: Cracklib / Glibc / Httpd / Libevent / Libgcrypt PHSA-2017-0013 (deprecated)	Nessus	PhotonOS Local Security Checks	8/17/2018	2/7/2019	critical
95641	GLSA-201612-25 : CrackLib: Buffer overflow	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	12/8/2016	1/11/2021	high

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