<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE glsa SYSTEM "http://www.gentoo.org/dtd/glsa.dtd">
<glsa id="200810-02">
  <title>Portage: Untrusted search path local root vulnerability</title>
  <synopsis>
    A search path vulnerability in Portage allows local attackers to execute
    commands with root privileges if emerge is called from untrusted
    directories.
  </synopsis>
  <product type="ebuild">portage</product>
  <announced>2008-10-09</announced>
  <revised count="01">2008-10-09</revised>
  <bug>239560</bug>
  <access>local</access>
  <affected>
    <package name="sys-apps/portage" auto="yes" arch="*">
      <unaffected range="ge">2.1.4.5</unaffected>
      <vulnerable range="lt">2.1.4.5</vulnerable>
    </package>
  </affected>
  <background>
    <p>
    Portage is Gentoo's package manager which is responsible for
    installing, compiling and updating all packages on the system through
    the Gentoo rsync tree.
    </p>
  </background>
  <description>
    <p>
    The Gentoo Security Team discovered that several ebuilds, such as
    sys-apps/portage, net-mail/fetchmail or app-editors/leo execute Python
    code using "python -c", which includes the current working directory in
    Python's module search path. For several ebuild functions, Portage did
    not change the working directory from emerge's working directory.
    </p>
  </description>
  <impact type="high">
    <p>
    A local attacker could place a specially crafted Python module in a
    directory (such as /tmp) and entice the root user to run commands such
    as "emerge sys-apps/portage" from that directory, resulting in the
    execution of arbitrary Python code with root privileges.
    </p>
  </impact>
  <workaround>
    <p>
    Do not run "emerge" from untrusted working directories.
    </p>
  </workaround>
  <resolution>
    <p>
    All Portage users should upgrade to the latest version:
    </p>
    <code>
    # cd /root
    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose "&gt;=sys-apps/portage-2.1.4.5"</code>
    <p>
    NOTE: To upgrade to Portage 2.1.4.5 using 2.1.4.4 or prior, you must
    run emerge from a trusted working directory, such as "/root".
    </p>
  </resolution>
  <references>
    <uri link="https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-4394">CVE-2008-4394</uri>
  </references>
  <metadata tag="submitter" timestamp="2008-10-08T16:50:57Z">
    rbu
  </metadata>
  <metadata tag="bugReady" timestamp="2008-10-08T16:58:04Z">
    rbu
  </metadata>
</glsa>
