Applications using libxml2 could be made to crash or run programs as your login if they opened a specially crafted file.
It was discovered that libxml2 contained an off by one error. If a user or application linked against libxml2 were tricked into opening a specially crafted XML file, an attacker could cause the application to crash or possibly execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user invoking the program. (CVE-2011-0216)
19 January 2012
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
Applications using libxml2 could be made to crash or run programs as your login if they opened a specially crafted file.
It was discovered that libxml2 contained an off by one error. If a user or application linked against libxml2 were tricked into opening a specially crafted XML file, an attacker could cause the application to crash or possibly execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user invoking the program. (CVE-2011-0216)
It was discovered that libxml2 is vulnerable to double-free conditions when parsing certain XML documents. This could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2821, CVE-2011-2834)
It was discovered that libxml2 did not properly detect end of file when parsing certain XML documents. An attacker could exploit this to crash applications linked against libxml2. (CVE-2011-3905)
It was discovered that libxml2 did not properly decode entity references with long names. If a user or application linked against libxml2 were tricked into opening a specially crafted XML file, an attacker could cause the application to crash or possibly execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user invoking the program. (CVE-2011-3919)
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 reboot your computer to make all the necessary changes.
Vulmon