KTorrent exploits revealed

For you Ubuntu users out there, it's just been revealed that earlier versions of the KTorrent BitTorrent client server are vulnerable to attack. A malicious remote peer could send specially crafted messages to overwrite files or execute arbitrary code with user privileges.

It has been reported that versions of the open-source BitTorrent client server KTorrent earlier than 2.1.2 are vulnerable to a pair of hacker attacks.

According to the bug report on the Ubuntu site, the first vulnerability can enable a hacker to cause the application to crash, and also allows them the ability to inject executable code onto a system.

More specifically:

chunkcounter.cpp in KTorrent before 2.1.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) and heap corruption via a negative or large idx value.

CVSS Severity: 7.0 (High)

Range: Remotely exploitable

Authentication: Not required to exploit

Impact Type: Provides unauthorized access, Allows partial confidentiality, integrity, and availability violation , Allows disruption of service

The second vulnerability is reported to allow the deliberate overwriting of arbitrary files on a user's system. The problem apparently occurs because the KTorrent BitTorrent client server does not correctly validate the destination file paths or the HAVE statements sent by torrent tracker peers. Inserting the string sequence ".." into the torrent filename is said to be all that is needed to break out of defined directories. A malicious remote peer could send specially crafted messages to overwrite files or execute arbitrary code with user privileges.

More specifically:

Directory traversal vulnerability in torrent.cpp in KTorrent before 2.1.2 allows remote attackers to overwrite arbitrary files via ".." sequences in a torrent filename.

CVSS Severity: 5.6 (Medium)

Range: Remotely exploitable

Authentication: Not required to exploit

Impact Type: Provides unauthorized access, Allows partial confidentiality, integrity, and availability violation , Allows disruption of service

In any event, KTorrent version 2.1.2 has been released and addresses both of these critical issues.

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