Critical Glibc Flaw Endangers Linux Systems

A new security flaw in the GNU C library (glibc) has been identified, allowing malicious local attackers to gain full root access on Linux machines. Tracked as CVE-2023-6246, this heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability is found in glibc’s __vsyslog_internal() function, used for system logging purposes. Introduced accidentally in August 2022 with the release of glibc 2.37, this flaw enables local privilege escalation, allowing an unprivileged user to gain full root access. The vulnerability impacts major Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora.

The flaw requires specific conditions to be exploited, such as an unusually long argv[0] or openlog() ident argument. Despite these requirements, the vulnerability’s impact is significant due to the widespread use of the affected library. Further analysis of glibc revealed two more flaws in the __vsyslog_internal() function (CVE-2023-6779 and CVE-2023-6780) and a third bug in the library’s qsort() function that can lead to memory corruption, affecting all glibc versions released since 1992.

These discoveries underscore the critical need for strict security measures in software development, especially for core libraries widely used across many systems and applications.

Source: The Hacker News

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