Do these security people have a clue ?
I just received this alert from Google: Perl Multiple Scripts Insecure Temporary File Creation ...
Following the link you'll find they claim there are some security issues in Perl and one should upgrade to 5.8.5.Then looking at the original reports (linked from the above page) you'll see they reported some vulnerability in various scripts written in Perl and one should upgrade.
They don't say what should they upgrade and to which version though...If you look closely at the advisory, it states that it's original source is a Trustix advisory. If you read the original it states that some of scripts contained in the Trustix packages handle temporary files in an insecure fashion, and this is the reason for the recommended upgrade. So the original wasn't a problem with Perl, but instead a problem with some particular scripts bundled with Perl (and ghostscript, glibc, groff, and many more).
Unfortunately, this is a clear case of security-advisory Chinese-whispers. Problems with a particular distribution's package have instead been re-reported to be problems with Perl itself.
The good news is that it is possible to go from the summary to the full advisory, and realise that the advice is intended only for those using the Trustix packages.
Re:Second-hand security
offerk on 2004-11-14T20:53:30
The good news is that it is possible to go from the summary to the full advisory, and realise that the advice is intended only for those using the Trustix packages.
The bad news is that *almost* no one will bother to do so... So Perl will get the blame, true or not:-(
