A GDM vulnerability allows local attackers to gain root privileges.
Sebastian Krahmer discovered that GDM (GNOME Display Manager) did not properly drop privileges when handling the cache directories used to store users’ dmrc and face icon files. This could allow a local attacker to change the ownership of arbitrary files, thereby gaining root privileges.
30 March 2011
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
A GDM vulnerability allows local attackers to gain root privileges.
Sebastian Krahmer discovered that GDM (GNOME Display Manager) did not properly drop privileges when handling the cache directories used to store users’ dmrc and face icon files. This could allow a local attacker to change the ownership of arbitrary files, thereby gaining root privileges.
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:
To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.
After a standard system update you need to log out all desktop sessions and restart GDM to make all the necessary changes.
Vulmon