Ubuntu Security Notice USN-2579-1
27th April, 2015
autofs vulnerability
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its
derivatives:
- Ubuntu 14.10
Summary
autofs could be made to run programs as an administrator if program maps
were configured.
Software description
- autofs
– kernel-based automounter for Linux
Details
It was discovered that autofs incorrectly filtered environment variables
when using program maps. When program maps were configured, a local user
could use this issue to escalate privileges.
This update changes the default behaviour by adding a prefix to environment
variables. Sites using program maps will need to adapt to the new variable
names, or revert to the previous names by using a new configuration option
called FORCE_STANDARD_PROGRAM_MAP_ENV.
Update instructions
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following
package version:
- Ubuntu 14.10:
-
autofs
5.0.8-1ubuntu1.1
To update your system, please follow these instructions:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.
After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make
all the necessary changes.