dstat: Untrusted search path

Background

dstat is a versatile system resource monitor written in Python.

Description

Robert Buchholz of the Gentoo Security Team reported that dstat includes the current working directory and subdirectories in the Python module search path (sys.path) before calling “import”.

Impact

A local attacker could entice a user to run “dstat” from a directory containing a specially crafted Python module, resulting in the execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application.

Workaround

Do not run “dstat” from untrusted working directories.

Resolution

All dstat users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-apps/dstat-0.6.9-r1"