Bug#57746: Your Debian/tetex-Bug report: Security: Directories are kept a+w

[frank@kuesterei.ch (Frank Küster)]

Dear Scott,

3 years ago you reported a bug in tetex to the Debian bug report
system. You critized:

> This package installs several of its directories a+w, which is a security
> issue:
>
> drwxrwxrwt    4 root     root         1024 Jan 27 13:13
> /var/spool/texmf/pk
> drwxrwxrwt    6 root     root         1024 Jan 27 05:55
> /var/spool/texmf/pk/ljfour
> drwxrwxrwt    4 crosby   crosby       1024 Jan 27 05:56
> [...]

Since then, the bug has not really been addressed. The directories have
been moved, but now /var/cache/fonts are a+w. However, it is not clear
to me which security risks you see in this case. I am not familiar
enough with TeX's font handling to know wether malformed files there
could lead to a buffer overflow or the like?

I would be glad if you could elaborate a little on that. Note that I am
not the maintainer of tetex and also not subscribed to get all
tetex-related mails, so please keep me in the Cc, as well as Hilmar.

Thank you in advance,
Frank
-- 
Frank Küster, Biozentrum der Univ. Basel
Abt. Biophysikalische Chemie