Ayatana Unity 7.2.0/7.2.1/7.2.2/7.3.0 Lock Screen race condition

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Ayatana Unity 7.2.0/7.2.1/7.2.2/7.3.0 and classified as problematic. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component Lock Screen. The manipulation leads to race condition. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2014-5195. No exploit exists. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Ayatana Unity 7.2.0/7.2.1/7.2.2/7.3.0. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects an unknown part of the component Lock Screen. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a race condition vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-362. The product contains a code sequence that can run concurrently with other code, and the code sequence requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence that is operating concurrently. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Unity before 7.2.3 and 7.3.x before 7.3.1, as used in Ubuntu, does not properly take focus of the keyboard when switching to the lock screen, which allows physically proximate attackers to bypass the lock screen by (1) leveraging a machine that had text selected when locking or (2) resuming from a suspension.

The weakness was disclosed 08/07/2014 (Website). The advisory is shared at bugs.launchpad.net. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2014-5195 since 08/07/2014. The exploitation is known to be easy. An attack has to be approached locally. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available.

The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 195728 (Ubuntu Security Notification for Unity Vulnerability (USN-2303-1)).

Upgrading to version 7.2.2 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at X-Force (95199), SecurityFocus (BID 68987†) and OSVDB (109788†). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• Ayatana

Name

• Unity

Version

• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.3.0

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Discussion