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SYNTHESIS OF THE VULNERABILITY

A local attacker can unplug a screen, in order to stop
gnome-screensaver.

Severity: 1/4

Consequences: user access/rights

Provenance: user console

Means of attack: 1 attack

Ability of attacker: technician (2/4)

Confidence: confirmed by the editor (5/5)

Diffusion of the vulnerable configuration: high (3/3)

Creation date: 08/02/2010

IMPACTED PRODUCTS

– Fedora
– Unix - plateform

DESCRIPTION OF THE VULNERABILITY
The gnome-screensaver program locks the screen and displays a
drawing.

When a system with two screens is locked, an attacker can:

– move the mouse to the secondary screen (the password input form
is displayed on this screen)
– unplug the secondary screen
– press a few keyboard keys

The gnome-screensaver then tries to handle keys associated to a
non existing screen, which stops it.

A local attacker can therefore unplug a screen, in order to stop
gnome-screensaver, and to access to user’s session.

CHARACTERISTICS

Identifiers: 609337, BID-38149, CVE-2010-0414, FEDORA-2010-1556,
VIGILANCE-VUL-9418

http://vigilance.fr/vulnerability/GNOME-unlocking-gnome-screensaver-9418