Arch Linux Security Advisory ASA-201702-13

Severity: Medium
Date : 2017-02-15
CVE-ID : CVE-2017-5953
Package : vim
Type : arbitrary code execution
Remote : No
Link : https://security.archlinux.org/AVG-174

Summary

The package vim before version 8.0.0322-1 is vulnerable to arbitrary
code execution.

Resolution

Upgrade to 8.0.0322-1.

pacman -Syu “vim>=8.0.0322-1”

The problem has been fixed upstream in version 8.0.0322.

Workaround

None.

Description

It was found that vim does not properly validate values for tree length
when handling a spell file, which may result in an integer overflow at
a memory allocation site and a resultant buffer overflow.

Impact

An attacker is able to execute arbitrary code on the affected host by
tricking a user to use a specially crafted spell file.

References

https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/399c297aa93afe2c0a39e2a1b3f972aebba44c9d
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/vim_dev/t-3RSdEnrHY
https://security.archlinux.org/CVE-2017-5953