Two GnuTLS Bugfix Releases
The GnuTLS project has published two bugfix releases to close several vulnerabilities and resolve an error capable of interrupting connections.
The developers closed down three security holes in the GnuTLS encryption library in version 2.2.4, however, the release introduced a new bug. According to security researchers Secunia, the vulnerabilities closed by the 2.2.4 release were extremely critical.
Attackers could exploit the three bugs to perform denial of service attacks: a sign error in the "_gnutls_ciphertext2compressed()" function, which is part of the "lib/gnutls_cipher.c" library, led to a read/write error capable of crashing applications affected by it. Two further errors occurred in "Client Hello" message processing – attackers could exploit the first error by injecting a manipulated "Server Name" extension to trigger a heap based buffer overflow which could then be exploited to execute arbitrary code. The second error was a null pointer dereference that could cause the application to crash. All of these vulnerabilities were confirmed for all GnuTLS versions prior to 2.2.4.
Version 2.2.5 published the same day removes errors introduced by the developers in 2.2.4, mainly a bug that caused interruptions to service.
The stable release and patches for older versions are available for downloading from various mirror servers. For more information on the vulnerabilities by the developers themselves, visit the GnuTLS website.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.