Secunia Logo  
 
pstotext Filename Shell Command Injection Vulnerability
Secunia Advisory: SA20012
Release Date: 2006-05-08
Popularity: 5,227 views

Critical:
Moderately critical
Impact: System access
Where: From remote
Solution Status: Unpatched

Software:pstotext 1.x

Subscribe: Instant alerts on relevant vulnerabilities


Description:
Brian May has reported a vulnerability in pstotext, which potentially can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a vulnerable system.

The vulnerability is caused due to an error in sanitising the filename supplied via the command line. This can be exploited to execute arbitrary commands when pstotext is run with a specially crafted command line that contains shell commands.

Successful exploitation requires that pstotext is run with command line input from non-trusted sources e.g. via a CGI application.

The vulnerability has been reported in version 1.9. Other versions may also be affected.

Solution:
Sanitise user supplied filenames before passing them as command line arguments to pstotext.

Provided and/or discovered by:
Brian May

Original Advisory:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=356988


Track this Secunia Advisory
Customers of the Secunia Vulnerability Intelligence solutions will automatically receive updates when new information regarding this advisory is released.

Read more about our Vulnerability Intelligence solutions and what they can do for you and your company.

About this Secunia Advisory
Please note: The information that this Secunia Advisory is based on comes from a third party unless stated otherwise.

Secunia collects, validates, and verifies all vulnerability reports issued by security research groups, vendors, and others.
  
Latest Advisories

Send Feedback to Secunia
If you have new information regarding this Secunia advisory or a product in our database, please send it to us using either our web form or email us at vuln@secunia.com.

Ideas, suggestions, and other feedback are most welcome.

Most Popular - 3 Hours

1. Interstage HTTP Server mod_proxy_ftp Cross-Site Scripting // 41 views
2. Adobe Flash Player Multiple Security Issues and Vulnerabilities // 37 views
3. OpenBSD update for OpenSSL // 36 views
4. Sun Java JDK / JRE Multiple Vulnerabilities // 34 views
5. Openfire Multiple Vulnerabilities // 34 views
6. Pizzis CMS "idvar" SQL Injection Vulnerability // 30 views
7. MODx "searchid" SQL Injection Vulnerability // 29 views
8. Asterisk User Account Enumeration Weakness // 26 views
9. XOOPS "mydirname" PHP Code Injection Vulnerability // 26 views
10. Sun Solaris Samba "smbd" Information Disclosure Vulnerability // 24 views