FreeBSD VuXML: Documenting security issues in FreeBSD and the FreeBSD Ports Collection

emacs -- run-python vulnerability

Affected packages
22 <= emacs <= 22.2_1

Details

VuXML ID 66657bd5-ac92-11dd-b541-001f3b19d541
Discovery 2008-09-05
Entry 2008-11-07
Modified 2010-05-02

Emacs developers report:

The Emacs command `run-python' launches an interactive Python interpreter. After the Python process starts up, Emacs automatically sends it the line:

import emacs

which normally imports a script named emacs.py which is distributed with Emacs. This script, which is typically located in a write-protected installation directory with other Emacs program files, defines various functions to help the Python process communicate with Emacs.

The vulnerability arises because Python, by default, prepends '' to the module search path, so modules are looked for in the current directory. If the current directory is world-writable, an attacker may insert malicious code by adding a fake Python module named emacs.py into that directory.

References

CVE Name CVE-2008-3949
URL http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2008-09/msg00215.html