Security Information
Debian takes security very seriously. We handle all security problems brought to our attention and ensure that they are corrected within a reasonable timeframe. Many advisories are coordinated with other free software vendors and are published the same day a vulnerability is made public and we also have a Security Audit team that reviews the archive looking for new or unfixed security bugs.
Experience has shown that security through obscurity
does not work. Public
disclosure allows for more rapid and better solutions to security problems. In
that vein, this page addresses Debian's status with respect to various known
security holes, which could potentially affect Debian.
Debian also participates in security standardization efforts: the Debian Security Advisories are CVE-Compatible (review the cross references) and Debian is represented in the Board of the Open Vulnerability Assessment Language project.
Keeping your Debian system secure
In order to receive the latest Debian security advisories, subscribe to the debian-security-announce mailing list.
You can use apt to easily get the latest security updates. This requires a line such as
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Then execute
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade to download and apply
the pending updates.
For more information about security issues in Debian, please refer to the Security Team FAQ and a manual called Securing Debian.
Recent Advisories
These web pages include a condensed archive of security advisories posted to the debian-security-announce list.
- [03 Feb 2011] DSA-2157 postgresql-8.3, postgresql-8.4, postgresql-9.0
- buffer overflow
- [31 Jan 2011] DSA-2156 pcscd
- buffer overflow
- [30 Jan 2011] DSA-2155 freetype
- several vulnerabilities
- [30 Jan 2011] DSA-2154 exim4
- privilege escalation
- [30 Jan 2011] DSA-2153 linux-2.6
- privilege escalation/denial of service/information leak
- [27 Jan 2011] DSA-2152 hplip
- buffer overflow
- [26 Jan 2011] DSA-2151 openoffice.org
- several vulnerabilities
- [22 Jan 2011] DSA-2150 request-tracker3.6
- unsalted password hashing
- [20 Jan 2011] DSA-2149 dbus
- denial of service
- [17 Jan 2011] DSA-2148 tor
- several vulnerabilities
- [16 Jan 2011] DSA-2147 pimd
- insecure temporary files
- [16 Jan 2011] DSA-2146 mydms
- directory traversal
- [16 Jan 2011] DSA-2145 libsmi
- buffer overflow
- [15 Jan 2011] DSA-2144 wireshark
- buffer overflow
- [14 Jan 2011] DSA-2143 mysql-dfsg-5.0
- several vulnerabilities
The latest Debian security advisories are also available in RDF format. We also offer a second file that includes the first paragraph of the corresponding advisory so you can see in it what the advisory is about.
The older security advisories are also available:
- Security advisories announced in 2011
- Security advisories announced in 2010
- Security advisories announced in 2009
- Security advisories announced in 2008
- Security advisories announced in 2007
- Security advisories announced in 2006
- Security advisories announced in 2005
- Security advisories announced in 2004
- Security advisories announced in 2003
- Security advisories announced in 2002
- Security advisories announced in 2001
- Security advisories announced in 2000
- Security advisories announced in 1999
- Security advisories announced in 1998
- Security advisories announced in 1997
- Undated security advisories, included for posterity.
Debian distributions are not vulnerable to all security problems. The Debian Security Tracker collects all information about the vulnerability status of Debian packages, and can be searched by CVE name or by package.
Contact Information
Please read the Security Team FAQ before contacting us, your question may well be answered there already!
The contact information is in the FAQ as well.