====================================================================== Secunia Research 27/07/2007 - Vim "helptags" Command Format String Vulnerability - ====================================================================== Table of Contents Affected Software....................................................1 Severity.............................................................2 Vendor's Description of Software.....................................3 Description of Vulnerability.........................................4 Solution.............................................................5 Time Table...........................................................6 Credits..............................................................7 References...........................................................8 About Secunia........................................................9 Verification........................................................10 ====================================================================== 1) Affected Software * Vim 6.4 * Vim 7.1 NOTE: Other versions may also be affected. ====================================================================== 2) Severity Rating: Less Critical Impact: System access Where: From remote ====================================================================== 3) Vendor's Description of Software "Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems." Product Link: http://www.vim.org/ ====================================================================== 4) Description of Vulnerability Secunia Research has discovered a vulnerability in Vim, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a vulnerable system. A format string error in the "helptags_one()" function in src/ex_cmds.c when running the "helptags" command can be exploited to execute arbitrary code via specially crafted help files. Successful exploitation requires that the user is tricked into running "helptags" on malicious data. ====================================================================== 5) Solution Apply the vendor's official patch: ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/patches/7.1/7.1.039 ====================================================================== 6) Time Table 17/07/2007 - Vendor notified (Red Hat, vendor-sec list, and Vim). 17/07/2007 - Vendor response. 27/07/2007 - Public disclosure. ====================================================================== 7) Credits Discovered by Ulf Harnhammar, Secunia Research. ====================================================================== 8) References The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned CVE-2007-2953 for the vulnerability. ====================================================================== 9) About Secunia Secunia offers vulnerability management solutions to corporate customers with verified and reliable vulnerability intelligence relevant to their specific system configuration: https://www.flexera.com/ Secunia also provides a publicly accessible and comprehensive advisory database as a service to the security community and private individuals, who are interested in or concerned about IT-security. Secunia believes that it is important to support the community and to do active vulnerability research in order to aid improving the security and reliability of software in general. Secunia regularly hires new skilled team members. Check the URL below to see currently vacant positions: https://www.flexera.com/company/careers Secunia offers a FREE mailing list called Secunia Security Advisories: https://www.flexera.com/secunia_security_advisories/ ====================================================================== 10) Verification Please verify this advisory by visiting the Secunia website: https://www.flexera.com/about-us/secunia-research/advisories/sr-2007-66.html Complete list of vulnerability reports published by Secunia Research: https://www.flexera.com/about-us/secunia-research/advisories/ ======================================================================