Multiple X11 terminals: Local privilege escalation

Background

Aterm, Eterm, Mrxvt, multi-aterm, RXVT, rxvt-unicode, and wterm are X11 terminal emulators.

Description

Bernhard R. Link discovered that RXVT opens a terminal on :0 if the “-display” option is not specified and the DISPLAY environment variable is not set. Further research by the Gentoo Security Team has shown that aterm, Eterm, Mrxvt, multi-aterm, rxvt-unicode, and wterm are also affected.

Impact

A local attacker could exploit this vulnerability to hijack X11 terminals of other users.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All aterm users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=x11-terms/aterm-1.0.1-r1"

All Eterm users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=x11-terms/eterm-0.9.4-r1"

All Mrxvt users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=x11-terms/mrxvt-0.5.3-r2"

All multi-aterm users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=x11-terms/multi-aterm-0.2.1-r1"

All RXVT users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=x11-terms/rxvt-2.7.10-r4"

All rxvt-unicode users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=x11-terms/rxvt-unicode-9.02-r1"

All wterm users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=x11-terms/wterm-6.2.9-r3"