Subversion: Metadata information leak

Background

Subversion is a versioning system designed to be a replacement for CVS. mod_authz_svn is an Apache module to do path-based authentication for Subversion repositories.

Description

There is a bug in mod_authz_svn that causes it to reveal logged metadata regarding commits to protected areas.

Impact

Protected files themselves will not be revealed, but an attacker could use the metadata to reveal the existence of protected areas, such as paths, file versions, and the commit logs from those areas.

Workaround

Rather than using mod_authz_svn, move protected areas into seperate repositories and use native Apache authentication to make these repositories unreadable.

Resolution

All Subversion users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge sync

 # emerge -pv ">=dev-util/subversion-1.0.8"
 # emerge ">=dev-util/subversion-1.0.8"