Serious Linux Security Flaw Found

FYI...
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113700,00.asp
December 02, 2003
"A serious vulnerability in the Linux 2.4 kernel has been discovered. The flaw allows users on a Linux machine to gain unlimited access privileges, according to a security advisory posted by developers of the noncommercial Debian Linux distribution. The bug affects versions of the Linux kernel prior to 2.4.23...'It's a local-only compromise that you can't trigger from the outside,'...said Linux creator Linus Torvalds. 'To most people, it would thus become serious only after you had some account hacked into--the bug then allows elevation of privileges.'...The bug does not only affect Debian users, however. Any Linux user running a version of the kernel prior to 2.4.23 should contact their distribution provider to see whether a patch for the exploit has been made available, Torvalds said..."

 

the only good news in this is that on a single user computer it is not a problem because an outside source can't exploit it