Gentoo Linux Advisory: Subversion

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200406-07

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http://security.gentoo.org/

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Severity: High
Title: Subversion: Remote heap overflow
Date: June 10, 2004
ID: 200406-07

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Synopsis

Subversion is vulnerable to a remote Denial of Service that may
be exploitable to execute arbitrary code on the server running
svnserve.

Background

Subversion is a revision control system that aims to be a
“compelling replacement for CVS”. It enjoys wide use in the open
source community. svnserve allows access to Subversion repositories
using URIs with the svn://, svn+ssh://, and other tunelled svn+*://
protocols.

Affected packages

Description

The svn protocol parser trusts the indicated length of a URI
string sent by a client. This allows a client to specify a very
long string, thereby causing svnserve to allocate enough memory to
hold that string. This may cause a Denial of Service. Alternately,
given a string that causes an integer overflow in the variable
holding the string length, the server might allocate less memory
than required, allowing a heap overflow. This heap overflow may
then be exploitable, allowing remote code execution. The attacker
does not need read or write access to the Subversion repository
being served, since even un-authenticated users can send svn
protocol requests.

Impact

Ranges from remote Denial of Service to potential arbitrary code
execution with privileges of the svnserve process.

Workaround

Servers without svnserve running are not vulnerable. Disable
svnserve and use DAV for access instead.

Resolution

All users should upgrade to the latest version of
Subversion.

    # emerge sync
    # emerge -pv ">=dev-util/subversion-1.0.4-r1"
    # emerge ">=dev-util/subversion-1.0.4-r1"

References

[ 1 ] CAN-2004-0413

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2004-0413

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the
Gentoo Security Website:

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200406-07.xml

Concerns?

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the
confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost
importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to
security@gentoo.org or
alternatively, you may file a bug at http://bugs.gentoo.org.

License

Copyright 2004 Gentoo Technologies, Inc; referenced text belongs
to its owner(s).

The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative
Commons – Attribution / Share Alike license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0