Issued:

2010-10-21

Updated:

2010-10-21

RHSA-2010:0788 - Moderate: pidgin security update

Synopsis

Moderate: pidgin security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Moderate

Topic

Updated pidgin packages that fix multiple security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

Description

Pidgin is an instant messaging program which can log in to multiple accounts on multiple instant messaging networks simultaneously.

Multiple NULL pointer dereference flaws were found in the way Pidgin handled Base64 decoding. A remote attacker could use these flaws to crash Pidgin if the target Pidgin user was using the Yahoo! Messenger Protocol, MSN, MySpace, or Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) protocol plug-ins, or using the Microsoft NT LAN Manager (NTLM) protocol for authentication. (CVE-2010-3711)

A NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the way the Pidgin MSN protocol plug-in processed custom emoticon messages. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash Pidgin by sending specially-crafted emoticon messages during mutual communication. (CVE-2010-1624)

Red Hat would like to thank the Pidgin project for reporting these issues. Upstream acknowledges Daniel Atallah as the original reporter of CVE-2010-3711, and Pierre Nogues of Meta Security as the original reporter of CVE-2010-1624.

All Pidgin users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues. Pidgin must be restarted for this update to take effect.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at This content is not included.http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

Updated Packages

• pidgin-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.x86_64.rpm
• pidgin-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ppc.rpm
• libpurple-devel-2.6.6-5.el5_5.i386.rpm
• libpurple-2.6.6-5.el4_8.i386.rpm
• libpurple-perl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ppc.rpm
• finch-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ppc.rpm
• finch-2.6.6-5.el5_5.x86_64.rpm
• pidgin-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ia64.rpm
• pidgin-perl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.x86_64.rpm
• finch-devel-2.6.6-5.el5_5.x86_64.rpm
• libpurple-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ppc.rpm
• pidgin-perl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.i386.rpm
• libpurple-2.6.6-5.el5_5.i386.rpm
• libpurple-tcl-2.6.6-5.el5_5.x86_64.rpm
• libpurple-2.6.6-5.el4_8.x86_64.rpm
• finch-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.i386.rpm
• pidgin-perl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ia64.rpm
• libpurple-perl-2.6.6-5.el5_5.i386.rpm
• pidgin-2.6.6-5.el5_5.i386.rpm
• pidgin-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ia64.rpm
• pidgin-perl-2.6.6-5.el5_5.i386.rpm
• finch-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.x86_64.rpm
• libpurple-tcl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.x86_64.rpm
• libpurple-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.i386.rpm
• libpurple-2.6.6-5.el5_5.x86_64.rpm
• libpurple-perl-2.6.6-5.el5_5.x86_64.rpm
• pidgin-2.6.6-5.el4_8.src.rpm
• libpurple-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.x86_64.rpm
• pidgin-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ppc.rpm
• pidgin-perl-2.6.6-5.el5_5.x86_64.rpm
• pidgin-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.i386.rpm
• finch-2.6.6-5.el4_8.x86_64.rpm
• pidgin-2.6.6-5.el4_8.i386.rpm
• finch-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ia64.rpm
• finch-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ia64.rpm
• libpurple-tcl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ia64.rpm
• finch-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ppc.rpm
• libpurple-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ppc.rpm
• libpurple-perl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.x86_64.rpm
• finch-devel-2.6.6-5.el5_5.i386.rpm
• libpurple-tcl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ppc.rpm
• libpurple-tcl-2.6.6-5.el5_5.i386.rpm
• pidgin-2.6.6-5.el5_5.x86_64.rpm
• libpurple-tcl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.i386.rpm
• libpurple-perl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.i386.rpm
• finch-2.6.6-5.el4_8.i386.rpm
• libpurple-perl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ia64.rpm
• pidgin-2.6.6-5.el4_8.x86_64.rpm
• libpurple-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ia64.rpm
• libpurple-devel-2.6.6-5.el5_5.x86_64.rpm
• pidgin-2.6.6-5.el5_5.src.rpm
• pidgin-devel-2.6.6-5.el5_5.x86_64.rpm
• pidgin-devel-2.6.6-5.el5_5.i386.rpm
• finch-2.6.6-5.el5_5.i386.rpm
• libpurple-devel-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ia64.rpm
• pidgin-perl-2.6.6-5.el4_8.ppc.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 589973
• This content is not included.BZ - 641921

CVEs

• CVE-2010-3711
• CVE-2010-1624

References

• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#moderate

Additional information

• The Red Hat security contact is This content is not included.secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/.
• Offline Security Data data is available for integration with other systems. See Offline Security Data API to get started.