Sun Java: Web Start argument injection vulnerability

Background

Sun provides implementations of Java Development Kits (JDK) and Java Runtime Environments (JRE). These implementations provide the Java Web Start technology that can be used for easy client-side deployment of Java applications.

Description

Jouko Pynnonen discovered that Java Web Start contains a vulnerability in the way it handles property tags in JNLP files.

Impact

By enticing a user to open a malicious JNLP file, a remote attacker could pass command line arguments to the Java Virtual machine, which can be used to bypass the Java “sandbox” and to execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the user running the application.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Sun JDK users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-java/sun-jdk-1.4.2.07"

All Sun JRE users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-java/sun-jre-bin-1.4.2.07"