A Security Vulnerability Involving xscreensaver(1) and Assistive Technology Support May Allow an Unauthorized User to Access the System

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A security vulnerability involving xscreensaver(1) and Assistive Technology Support:

1. Impact

A security vulnerability involving xscreensaver(1) and Assistive Technology Support may allow a local user with physical access to a system to be able to unlock an X display which has been locked using xscreensaver(1) and thus gain unauthorized access to the system.

2. Contributing Factors

This issue can occur in the following releases:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 10 without patch 120094-24
  
• OpenSolaris based upon builds snv_01 through snv_110
  

x86 Platform

• Solaris 10 without patch 120095-24
  
• OpenSolaris based upon builds snv_01 through snv_110

Note 1: Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 are not impacted by this issue.

Note 2: OpenSolaris distributions may include additional bug fixes above and beyond the build from which it was derived.  To determine the base build of OpenSolaris, the following command can be used:

    $ uname -v
    snv_101

This issue only occurs on systems that have the "Assistive Technologies" feature enabled. To determine if this feature is enabled, the following command can be used:

    $ gnome-at-properties

In the popup box, "Enable Assistive Technologies" will be checked.

3. Symptoms

There are no predictable symptoms that would indicate the described vulnerability has been exploited.

4. Workaround

To work around the described issue, Assistive Technology can be temporarily disabled by using the following command:

    $gnome-at-properties

Uncheck "Enable Assistive Technologies" in the popup box.

5. Resolution

This issue is addressed in the following releases:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 10 with patch 120094-24
• OpenSolaris based upon builds snv_111 or later
  

x86 Platform

• Solaris 10 with patch 120095-24 or later
• OpenSolaris based upon builds snv_111 or later

For more information on Security Sun Alerts, see Technical Instruction ID 213557.

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