The apt-get utility that can be exploited by a remote, man-in-the middle attacker to compromise Linux machines.

The flaw, apparently, once again demonstrates that if the software download ecosystem uses HTTPS to communicate safely, such attacks can easily be mitigated at the first place.

The APT utility doesn’t properly sanitize certain parameters during HTTP redirects, allowing man-in-the-middle attackers to inject malicious content and trick the system into installing altered packages.

APT HTTP redirects help Linux machines to automatically find suitable mirror server to download software packages when others are unavailable.

If the first server somehow fails, it returns a response with the location of next server from where the client should request the package.

A malicious mirror—can inject malicious packages in the network traffic and execute arbitrary code on the targeted system with the highest level of privileges, i.e. root.

Since apt-get is part of many major Linux distributions including Debian and Ubuntu, who have also acknowledged the flaw and released security updates, it is highly recommended for Linux users to update their systems as soon as possible.

source: THN