Gentoo Linux Advisory: xinetd

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Aug 14, 2002
- - --------------------------------------------------------------------
GENTOO LINUX SECURITY ANNOUNCEMENT
- - --------------------------------------------------------------------

PACKAGE        :xinetd
SUMMARY        :pipe exposure
DATE           :2002-08-14 08:40 UTC

- - --------------------------------------------------------------------

OVERVIEW

File descriptors introduced in 2.3.4 can be used to crash xinetd 
resulting in a denial of service.

DETAIL

Solar Designer found a vulnerability in xinetd, a replacement for the
BSD derived inetd.  File descriptors for the signal pipe introduced in
version 2.3.4 are leaked into services started from xinetd.  The
descriptors could be used to talk to xinetd resulting in crashing it
entirely.  This is usually called a denial of service.

SOLUTION

It is recommended that all Gentoo Linux users who are running
sys-apps/xinetd-2.3.5 and earlier update their systems as follows.

emerge rsync
emerge xinetd
emerge clean

xinetd-2.3.7 is currently only available for x86. Sparc and ppc will
be available when it's been tested on these archs.

- - --------------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Ahlberg
aliz@gentoo.org
- - --------------------------------------------------------------------

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

Linux Today Logo

LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.