Vigil@nce: GNOME, unlocking gnome-screensaver
February 2010 by Vigil@nce
A local attacker can plug a second 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: 15/02/2010
IMPACTED PRODUCTS
– Unix - plateform
DESCRIPTION OF THE VULNERABILITY
The gnome-screensaver program locks the screen and displays a
drawing.
When a system is locked, an attacker can:
– plug a second screen
– wait for its autodetection, and wait for the password input
form to be 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 plug a second screen, in order to
stop gnome-screensaver, and to access to user’s session.
CHARACTERISTICS
– Identifiers: 564464, 609789, CVE-2010-0422, VIGILANCE-VUL-9452
– Url: http://vigilance.fr/vulnerability/GNOME-unlocking-gnome-screensaver-9452