Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1223-2

Ubuntu Security Notice 1223-2 – USN-1223-1 fixed vulnerabilities in Puppet. A regression was found on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS that caused permission denied errors when managing SSH authorized_keys files with Puppet. This update fixes the problem. It was discovered that Puppet unsafely opened files when the k5login type is used to manage files. A local attacker could exploit this to overwrite arbitrary files which could be used to escalate privileges. Ricky Zhou discovered that Puppet did not drop privileges when creating SSH authorized_keys files. A local attacker could exploit this to overwrite arbitrary files as root. It was discovered that Puppet used a predictable filename when using the –edit resource. A local attacker could exploit this to edit arbitrary files or run arbitrary code as the user invoking the program, typically root. Various other issues were also addressed.

Source: Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1223-2