AccountsService could be made to overwrite files as the administrator.
Hayawardh Vijayakumar discovered that AccountsService incorrectly handled privileges when modifying the language settings on Ubuntu. A local attacker could exploit this issue to modify arbitrary files, and possibly create a denial of service or obtain increased privileges.
31 January 2012
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
AccountsService could be made to overwrite files as the administrator.
Hayawardh Vijayakumar discovered that AccountsService incorrectly handled privileges when modifying the language settings on Ubuntu. A local attacker could exploit this issue to modify arbitrary files, and possibly create a denial of service or obtain increased 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 reboot your computer to make all the necessary changes.
Vulmon