Screen: UTF-8 character handling vulnerability

Screen: UTF-8 character handling vulnerability Screen contains an error in its UTF-8 character handling code that would allow a remote Denial of Service or possibly the remote execution of arbitrary code. screen 2006-11-03 2006-11-03 152770 remote 4.0.3 4.0.3

Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes, typically interactive shells.

cstone and Richard Felker discovered a flaw in Screen's UTF-8 combining character handling.

The vulnerability can be exploited by writing a special string of characters to a Screen window. A remote attacker could cause a Denial of Service or possibly execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running Screen through a program being run inside a Screen session, such as an IRC client or a mail client.

There is no known workaround at this time.

All Screen users should upgrade to the latest version:


    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=app-misc/screen-4.0.3"

CVE-2006-4573 aetius falco