A buffer-overflow vulnerability uncovered Tuesday in the GNU C Library poses a serious threat to countless Linux users.
Dating back to the release of glibc 2.9 in 2008, CVE-2015-7547 is a stack-based buffer overflow bug in the glibc DNS client-side resolver that opens the door to remote code execution when a particular library function is used. Software using the function can be exploited with attacker-controlled domain names, attacker-controlled DNS servers or man-in-the-middle attacks.
Glibc, which was also at the core of the "Ghost" vulnerability found last year, is a C library that defines system calls and other basic functions on Linux systems. Its maintainers had apparently been alerted of the new problem last July, but it's not clear if any remediation effort was launched at that time.
Google and Red Hat independently reported the problem this week and a patch is now available.
"Our initial investigations showed that the issue affected all the versions of glibc since 2.9," Google explained in its Online Security Blog. "You should definitely update if you are on an older version, though. If the vulnerability is detected, machine owners may wish to take steps to mitigate the risk of an attack."
http://www.cio.com.au/article/594074/use-linux-stop-what-re-doing-apply-patch/
