UUDeview MIME Buffer Overflow — GLSA 200403-05

A specially-crafted MIME file (.mim, .uue, .uu, .b64, .bhx, .hqx, and .xxe extensions) may cause UUDeview to crash or execute arbitrary code.

Affected packages

Package 	app-text/uudeview on all architectures
Affected versions 	< 0.5.20
Unaffected versions 	>= 0.5.20

Background

UUDeview is a program which is used to transmit binary files over the Internet in a text-only format. It is commonly used for email and Usenet attachments. It supports multiple encoding formats, including Base64, BinHex and UUEncoding.

Description

By decoding a MIME archive with excessively long strings for various parameters, it is possible to crash UUDeview, or cause it to execute arbitrary code.

This vulnerability was originally reported by iDEFENSE as part of a WinZip advisory [ Reference: 1 ].

Impact

An attacker could create a specially-crafted MIME file and send it via email. When recipient decodes the file, UUDeview may execute arbitrary code which is embedded in the MIME file, thus granting the attacker access to the recipient's account.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time. As a result, a software upgrade is required and users should upgrade to uudeview 0.5.20.

Resolution

All users should upgrade to uudeview 0.5.20:

 # emerge sync
 # emerge -pv ">=app-text/uudeview-0.5.20"
 # emerge ">=app-text/uudeview-0.5.20"
 

References

    iDEFENSE advisory
    SecurityFocus advisory