USN-2726-1: Expat vulnerability

Publication date

31 August 2015

Overview

Expat could be made to crash or run programs as your login if it opened a specially crafted file.


Packages

  • expat - XML parsing C library

Details

It was discovered that Expat incorrectly handled malformed XML data. If a
user or application linked against Expat were tricked into opening a
crafted XML file, an attacker could cause a denial of service, or possibly
execute arbitrary code.

It was discovered that Expat incorrectly handled malformed XML data. If a
user or application linked against Expat were tricked into opening a
crafted XML file, an attacker could cause a denial of service, or possibly
execute arbitrary code.

Update instructions

After a standard system upgrade you need to restart any applications linked against Expat to effect the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu Release Package Version
15.04 vivid lib64expat1 –  2.1.0-6ubuntu1.1
libexpat1 –  2.1.0-6ubuntu1.1
14.04 trusty lib64expat1 –  2.1.0-4ubuntu1.1
libexpat1 –  2.1.0-4ubuntu1.1
12.04 precise lib64expat1 –  2.0.1-7.2ubuntu1.2
libexpat1 –  2.0.1-7.2ubuntu1.2

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