‘Ghost’ vulnerability poses high risk to Linux distributions

A fault in a widely used component of most Linux distributions could allow an attacker to take remote control of a system after merely sending a malicious email.

The vulnerability, nicknamed “Ghost,” is in the GNU C Library known as glibc, according to security vendor Qualys, which disclosed the issue on Tuesday as many Linux distributions released patches. Glibc is a C library that defines system calls.

Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu and Novell have issued fixes. It is advised administrators should patch as soon as possible.

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Network World Security