| Description: | PCRE is a Perl-compatible regular expression library.
An integer overflow flaw was found in PCRE, triggered by a maliciously crafted regular expression. On systems that accept arbitrary regular expressions from untrusted users, this could be exploited to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the application using the library. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project assigned the name CAN-2005-2491 to this issue.
The security impact of this issue varies depending on the way that applications make use of PCRE. For example, the Apache web server uses the system PCRE library in order to parse regular expressions, but this flaw would only allow a user who already has the ability to write .htaccess files to gain 'apache' privileges. For applications supplied with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, a maximum security impact of moderate has been assigned.
Users should update to these erratum packages that contain a backported patch to correct this issue.
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