Wolfgang M. Reimer discovered that dash, when invoked as a login shell, would source .profile files from the current directory. Local users may be able to bypass security restrictions and gain root privileges by placing specially crafted .profile files where they might get sourced by other dash users.
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:
10 March 2009
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
Wolfgang M. Reimer discovered that dash, when invoked as a login shell, would source .profile files from the current directory. Local users may be able to bypass security restrictions and gain root privileges by placing specially crafted .profile files where they might get sourced by other dash users.
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.
In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.
Vulmon