teTeX, pTeX, CSTeX: Multiple vulnerabilities — GLSA 200501-31

teTeX, pTeX and CSTeX make use of vulnerable Xpdf code which may allow the remote execution of arbitrary code. Furthermore, the xdvizilla script is vulnerable to temporary file handling issues.

Affected packages

Background

teTeX is a complete and open source TeX distribution. CSTeX is another TeX distribution including Czech and Slovak support. pTeX is another alternative that allows Japanese publishing with TeX. xdvizilla is an auxiliary script used to integrate DVI file viewing in Mozilla-based browsers.

Description

teTeX, pTeX and CSTeX all make use of Xpdf code and may therefore be vulnerable to the various overflows that were discovered in Xpdf code (CAN-2004-0888, CAN-2004-0889, CAN-2004-1125 and CAN-2005-0064). Furthermore, Javier Fernandez-Sanguino Pena discovered that the xdvizilla script does not handle temporary files correctly.

Impact

An attacker could design a malicious input file which, when processed using one of the TeX distributions, could lead to the execution of arbitrary code. Furthermore, a local attacker could create symbolic links in the temporary files directory, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the filesystem. When xdvizilla is called, this would result in the file being overwritten with the rights of the user running the script.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=app-text/tetex-2.0.2-r5"

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=app-text/cstetex-2.0.2-r1"

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=app-text/ptex-3.1.4-r2"

References

• CAN-2004-0888
• CAN-2004-0889
• CAN-2004-1125
• CAN-2005-0064

Release date
January 23, 2005

Latest revision
January 23, 2005: 01

Severity
normal

Exploitable
remote and local

Bugzilla entries

• 75801