Coreutils: Arbitrary code execution

Background

The GNU Core Utilities are the basic file, shell and text manipulation utilities of the GNU operating system.

Description

A memory corruption flaw in GNU Coreutils’ parse_datetime function was reported. Applications using parse_datetime(), such as touch or date, may accepted untrusted input.

Impact

A remote attacker could possibly execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the process, or cause a Denial of Service condition.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Coreutils users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-apps/coreutils-8.23"