Update (February 2005): The issue described below has re-appeared in the official (non-BETA) version released on Feb 1, 2005. Skype were notified on Feb 10, and a fixed version was released on Feb 14. Vulnerable: skype-1.0.0.1-suse.i586.rpm (but see below) Fixed: skype-1.0.0.7-suse.i586.rpm NB: it seems that a fixed version skype-1.0.0.1-suse.i586.rpm was made available on Feb 11, but without modifying the version number. The difference can only be seen with "rpm -qi ..." - : conrad@adams:~> rpm -qip skype-1.0.0.1-suse.i586.rpm | grep Release Release : suse Build Date: Mon Jan 31 19:00:45 2005 conrad@adams:~> rpm -qip skype-1.0.0.1b-suse.i586.rpm | grep Release Release : suse.hotfix1 Build Date: Fri Feb 11 14:18:39 2005 Am Mittwoch, 22. Dezember 2004 18:12 schrieb Peter Conrad: > Date: December 2004 > > Product: Skype (http://skype.com/) > > "Skype is free Internet telephony that just works. > Skype is for calling other people on their computers or phones. > Download Skype and start calling for free all over the world." > > Affected versions: > > Linux RPM's version 0.92.0.12, possibly others. > (Linux versions are marked as "BETA") > > Problem Description: > > During installation a world-writable directory "/usr/share/skype/lang" is > created. > > Impact: > > The directory (presumably) contains various language files used by the > skype application. An attacker could modify these files. It is unknown if > this could be used for attacking local users running the skype application. > > Solution: > > The problem seems to be fixed in version 0.93.0.3, which is currently > available for download from the skype website. > > History: > > - Vendor notified on 19-Nov-2004 > - Vendor acknowledged problem within 40 minutes > - Fixed version available since 21-Dec-2004 -- Peter Conrad Tel: +49 6102 / 80 99 072 [ t]ivano Software GmbH Fax: +49 6102 / 80 99 071 Bahnhofstr. 18 http://www.tivano.de/ 63263 Neu-Isenburg Germany