[linux-security] pine advisory

Synopsis
========
pine contains a bug that may allow execution of arbitrary code

Problem Description
===================
pine contains a buffer overflow that potentially allows an attacker by
adding specific headers to an email message to execute arbitrary code under
the id of the user who opens that email message using pine.

Additional Information: 
Quote from the FreeBSD advisory on pine:
"Administrators should note that the Pine software has been a frequent
 source of past security holes, and makes extensive use of string
 routines commonly associated with security vulnerabilities.  The
 FreeBSD Security Officer believes it is likely that further
 vulnerabilities exist in this software, and recommends the use of
 alternative mail software in environments where electronic mail may be
 received from untrusted sources."

My own comment:
This is the third time within a year that such a bug has been found
in pine. All of these bugs allowed execution of arbitrary code, e.g.,
"rm -rf ~/." This is the worst case scenario when it comes to mail
software and affects every user on a Unix system.
I can only recommend not to use pine.

Affected Systems
================
All unix systems that have pine installed.

Workaround (recommended, see above!)
====================================
Uninstall pine, use elm. There is another mail program called "mutt".
I have not tried it. I can only say that I haven't seen any security
related bug reports about it (neither about elm).

Solution (if you want to keep pine)
===================================
install pine-4.30

RedHat 6.x
rpm -Fvh pine-4.30-1.62.i386.rpm imap-2000-2.6.i386.rpm imap-devel-2000-2.6.i386.rpm

RedHat 7.0
rpm -Fvh pine-4.30-2.i386.rpm imap-2000-3.i386.rpm imap-devel-2000-3.i386.rpm