SuSE finally patches OpenOffice.org flaw

Linus firm SuSE has fixed a flaw in the OpenOffice.org suite of programs more than two weeks after it was discovered. 

The update released today fixes a vulnerability found on 12 June that could be exploited by malicious attackers to compromise a user's system.

The attack uses specially crafted RTF files with a 'prtdata' tag that has a length parameter inconsistency, causing vtable entries to be overwritten.

This could cause a heap-based buffer overflow in OpenOffice.org 2.2.1 and earlier versions and allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code.

Secunia rated the flaw, which affects openSuse 10.2, SuSE Linux 10, SuSE Linux 10.1 and SuSE Linux Desktop 1.x, as 'highly critical'. 

Sun Microsystems warned that users affected by the attack would not be aware of it.

"There are no predictable symptoms that would indicate that this issue has occurred," said a Sun security briefing.

The flaw was brought to light by John Heasman of NGS Software. 

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