ATTN FreeBSD 7/8 users! Local root exploit patch

FreeBSD Security Team official statement and PATCH

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Hi all,

A short time ago a "local root" exploit was posted to the full-disclosure
mailing list; as the name suggests, this allows a local user to execute
arbitrary code as root.

Normally it is the policy of the FreeBSD Security Team to not publicly
discuss security issues until an advisory is ready, but in this case
since exploit code is already widely available I want to make a patch
available ASAP. Due to the short timeline, it is possible that this
patch will not be the final version which is provided when an advisory
is sent out; it is even possible (although highly doubtful) that this
patch does not fully fix the issue or introduces new issues -- in short,
use at your own risk (even more than usual).

The patch is at
http://people.freebsd.org/~cperciva/rtld.patch
and has SHA256 hash
ffcba0c20335dd83e9ac0d0e920faf5b4aedf366ee5a41f548b95027e3b770c1

I expect a full security advisory concerning this issue will go out on
Wednesday December 2nd.
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--
Colin Percival
Security Officer, FreeBSD | freebsd.org | The power to serve
Founder / author, Tarsnap | tarsnap.com | Online backups for the truly paranoid

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Yes, this one's serious ... rtld.c needs to be patched and recompiled. There is a POC posted with which you can check your own system for the presence of this vulnerability here:

http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2009/Nov/371

Patching immediately is highly recommended ... NOW!

 

I'd just read the notification in my mail and was also going to post so thanks Kevin.