USN-3304-1: Sudo vulnerability

30 May 2017

Sudo could be made to overwrite files as the administrator.

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Releases

Packages

  • sudo - Provide limited super user privileges to specific users

Details

It was discovered that Sudo did not properly parse the contents of
/proc/[pid]/stat when attempting to determine its controlling tty.
A local attacker in some configurations could possibly use this to
overwrite any file on the filesystem, bypassing intended permissions.

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Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 17.04
Ubuntu 16.10
Ubuntu 16.04
Ubuntu 14.04

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

References

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Further reading