Introduction
You are running Debian stable, because you prefer the Debian stable tree. It runs great, there is just one problem: the software is a little bit outdated compared to other distributions. This is where backports come in.
Backports are packages taken from the next Debian release (called "testing"), adjusted and recompiled for usage on Debian stable. Because the package is also present in the next Debian release, you can easily upgrade your stable+backports system once the next Debian release comes out. (In a few cases, usually for security updates, backports are also created from the Debian unstable distribution.)
Backports cannot be tested as extensively as Debian stable, and backports are provided on an as-is basis, with risk of incompatibilities with other components in Debian stable. Use with care!
It is therefore recommended to only select single backported packages that fit your needs, and not use all available backports.
Where to start
- Users should start at the Instructions page.
- Contributors should start Contribute page.
- If you want to know which packages are available via backports.debian.org look at the Packages page.
News
Bernhard Schmidt uploaded new packages for openvpn which fixed the
following security problems:
CVE-2017-7479
It was discovered that openvpn did not properly handle the
rollover of packet identifiers. This would allow an authenticated
remote attacker to cause a denial-of-service via application
crash.
CVE-2017-7508
Guido Vranken discovered that openvpn did not properly handle
specific malformed IPv6 packets. This would allow a remote
attacker to cause a denial-of-service via application crash.
CVE-2017-7520
Guido Vranken discovered that openvpn did not properly handle
clients connecting to an HTTP proxy with NTLMv2
authentication. This would allow a remote attacker to cause a
denial-of-service via application crash, or potentially leak
sensitive information like the user's proxy password.
CVE-2017-7521
Guido Vranken discovered that openvpn did not properly handle
some x509 extensions. This would allow a remote attacker to cause
a denial-of-service via application crash.
For the jessie-backports distribution the problems have been fixed in
version 2.4.0-6+deb9u1~bpo8+1.
Al Nikolov uploaded new package for salt which fixed the
following security problem:
CVE-2017-8109
The salt-ssh minion code in SaltStack Salt 2016.11 before 2016.11.4
copied over configuration from the Salt Master without adjusting
permissions, which might leak credentials to local attackers on
configured minions (clients).
For the jessie-backports distribution the problems have been fixed in
version 2016.11.2+ds-1~bpo8+2.
With the release of stretch we are pleased to open the doors for stretch-backports and jessie-backports-sloppy. \o/
As usual with a new release we will change a few things for the backports service.
What to upload where
As a reminder, uploads to a release-backports pocket are to be taken from release + 1, uploads to a release-backports-sloppy pocket are to be taken from release + 2. Which means:
Source Distribution | Backports Distribution | Sloppy Distribution |
---|---|---|
buster | stretch-backports | jessie-backports-sloppy |
stretch | jessie-backports | - |
Deprecation of LTS support for backports
We started supporting backports as long as there is LTS support as an experiment. Unfortunately it didn't worked, most maintainers didn't wanted to support oldoldstable-backports (squeeze) for the lifetime of LTS. So things started to rot in squeeze and most packages didn't received updates. After long discussions we decided to deprecate LTS support for backports. From now on squeeze-backports(-sloppy) is closed and will not receive any updates. Expect it to get removed from the mirrors and moved to archive in the near future.
BSA handling
We - the backports team - didn't scale well in processing BSA requests. To get things better in the future we decided to change the process a little bit. If you upload a package which fixes security problems please fill out the BSA template and create a ticket in the rt tracker (see https://backports.debian.org/Contribute/#index3h2 for details).
Stretching the rules
From time to time its necessary to not follow the backports rules, like a package needs to be in testing or a version needs to be in Debian. If you think you have one of those cases, please talk to us on the list before upload the package.
Thanks
Thanks have to go out to all people making backports possible, and that includes up front the backporters themself who do upload the packages, track and update them on a regular basis, but also the buildd team making the autobuilding possible and the ftp masters for creating the suites in the first place.
We wish you a happy stretch
Alex, on behalf of the Backports Team
Henrique de Moraes Holschuh uploaded new packages for iucode-tool which
fixed the following security problems:
CVE-2017-0357
iucode-tool v1.4 to v2.1 is vulnerable to a heap buffer overflow in
the -tr (recovery) loader. Using specially-crafted data files and a
specially crafted command line, it might be possible to leverage this
heap buffer overflow to cause heap corruption, which might allow an
attacker to run arbitrary code.
For the jessie-backports distribution the problem has been fixed in
version 2.1.1-1~bpo8+1.
For the wheezy-backports distribution, no fix is necessary.
For users building directly from the git repository, all
debian/release/* branches have been updated with fixed versions where
necessary.
Craig Small <csmall@debian.org> uploaded new packages for wordpress
which fixed the following security problems:
CVE-2016-10066, CVE-2016-10045
Potential Remote Command Execution (RCE) in PHPMailer
CVE-2017-5488
Authenticated Cross-Site scripting (XSS) in update-core.php
CVE-2017-5490
Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) via Theme Name fallback
CVE-2017-5491
Post via Email Checks mail.example.com by Default
CVE-2017-5492
Accessibility Mode Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE-2017-5493
Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator
CVE-2017-5487
User Information Disclosure via REST API - API doesn't exist
CVE-2017-5489
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) via Flash Upload
For the jessie-backports distribution the problems have been fixed in
version 4.7.1+dfsg-1~bpo8+1
Harlan Lieberman-Berg uploaded new packages for ansible which fixed the
following security problems:
CVE-2016-3096
Predictable filenames could allow an attacker to a user to execute
arbitrary commands as root inside an lxc_container managed container.
For the jessie-backports distribution, the problem has been fixed in
version 2.0.2.0-1~bpo8+1
Ryan Tandy uploaded new packages for openldap which fixed the
following security problems:
CVE-2015-6908
Denis Andzakovic discovered that OpenLDAP, a free implementation of the
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, does not properly handle BER data.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can use this flaw to cause a denial of
service (slapd daemon crash) via a specially crafted packet.
For the wheezy-backports distribution the problems have been fixed in
version 2.4.31+really2.4.40+dfsg-1+deb8u1~bpo70+1.
The jessie-backports suite does not contain openldap packages, while for
Debian stable suites the issue has been fixed by DSA-3356-1 (jessie and
wheezy) and DLA-309-1 (squeeze).
Christian Seiler prepared new packages for lxc which fixed the following
security problems:
CVE-2015-1331
Roman Fiedler discovered a directory traversal flaw in LXC when
creating lock files. A local attacker could exploit this flaw to
create an arbitrary file as the root user.
CVE-2015-1334
Roman Fiedler discovered that LXC incorrectly trusted the container's
proc filesystem to set up AppArmor profile changes and SELinux domain
transitions. A malicious container could create a fake proc
filesystem and use this flaw to run programs inside the container
that are not confined by AppArmor or SELinux.
For the wheezy-backports distribution the problems have been fixed in
version 1.0.6-6+deb8u1~bpo70+1.
Christian Hofstaedtler uploaded new packages for pdns and
pdns-server which fixed the following security problem:
CVE-2015-1868: The label decompression functionality in PowerDNS
Recursor 3.5.x, 3.6.x before 3.6.3, and 3.7.x before 3.7.2 and
Authoritative (Auth) Server 3.2.x, 3.3.x before 3.3.2, and 3.4.x
before 3.4.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service
(CPU consumption or crash) via a request with a name that refers to
itself.
For the wheezy-backports distribution the problems have been fixed
in pdns version 3.4.1-4+deb8u1~bpo70+1, and in pdns-recursor
version 3.6.2-2+deb8u1~bpo70+1.
Thomas Goirand uploaded new packages for horizon which fixed the
following security problem:
CVE-2015-3988:
Sunil Yadav from IBM Security Services reported a persistent XSS in
Horizon. An authenticated user may conduct a persistent XSS attack by
setting a malicious metadata to a Glance image, a Nova flavor or a
Host Aggregate and tricking an administrator to load the update
metadata page. Once executed in a legitimate context this attack may
result in a privilege escalation.
For the jessie-backports distribution the problems have been fixed in
2015.1.0-2~bpo8+1.