Security: Linux openoffice.org security update

Red Hat released updated openoffice.org packages to correct a security issue are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

OpenOffice.org is an office productivity suite that includes desktop applications such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, formula editor, and drawing program.

Sean Larsson found a heap overflow flaw in the OpenOffice memory allocator. If a carefully crafted file was opened by a victim, an attacker could use the flaw to crash OpenOffice.org or, possibly, execute arbitrary code.

It was discovered that certain libraries in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4 openoffice.org packages had an insecure relative RPATH (runtime library search path) set in the ELF (Executable and Linking Format) header. A local user able to convince another user to run OpenOffice in an attacker-controlled directory, could run arbitrary code with the privileges of the victim.

All users of openoffice.org are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported fixes which correct these issues.