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pstotext Filename Shell Command Injection Vulnerability
Secunia Advisory: SA20012
Release Date: 2006-05-08
Popularity: 5,014 views

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

Software:pstotext 1.x

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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


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