SECURITY: New KDE Libraries Released

KDE Adds Security and Bug Fixes to Core Libraries

April 30, 2001 (The INTERNET). The KDE Project today announced the release of kdelibs 2.1.2, a security and bugfix release of the core KDE libraries. The other core KDE packages, including kdebase, have not been updated. The KDE Project recommends that all KDE users upgrade to kdelibs 2.1.2 and KDE 2.1.1.

This release provides the following fixes:

• Security fixes:
• KDEsu. The KDEsu which shipped with earlier releases of KDE 2 writes a (very) temporary but world-readable file with authentication information. A local user can potentially abuse this behavior to gain access to the X server and, if KDEsu is used to perform tasks that require root-access, can result in comprimise of the root account.
• Bug fixes:
• kio_http. Fixed problems with "protocol for http://x.y.z died unexpectedly" and with proxy authentication with Konqueror.
• kparts. Fixed crash in KOffice 1.1 when splitting views.
• khtml. Fixed memory leak in Konqueror. Fixed minor HTML rendering problems.
• kcookiejar. Fixed minor problems with HTTP cookies.
• kconfig. Fixed problem with leading/trailing spaces in configuration values.
• kdebug. Fixed memory leak in debug output.
• klineedit. Fixed problem with klineedit emitting "return pressed" twice.

For more information about the KDE 2.1 series, please see the KDE 2.1.1 press release and the KDE 2.1.1 Info Page, which is an evolving FAQ about the latest stable release. Information on using anti-aliased fonts with KDE is available here.

Downloading and Compiling kdelibs 2.1.2

The source package for kdelibs 2.1.2 (including a diff file against 2.1.1) is available for free download at http://ftp.kde.org/stable/2.1.2/distribution/src/ or in the equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp server mirrors. KDE 2.1.2 requires qt-2.2.3, which is available from Trolltech at ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/qt/source/ under the name qt-x11-2.2.3.tar.gz, although qt-2.2.4or qt-2.3.0is recommended (for anti-aliased fonts, qt-2.3.0and XFree 4.0.3 or newer is required). kdelibs 2.1.2 will not work with versions of Qt older than 2.2.3.

For further instructions on compiling and installing KDE, please consult the installation instructions and, if you encounter problems, the compilation FAQ.

Installing Binary Packages

Some distributors choose to provide binary packages of KDE for certain versions of their distribution. Some of these binary packages for kdelibs 2.1.2 will be available for free download under http://ftp.kde.org/stable/2.1.2/distribution/ or under the equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp server mirrors. Please note that the KDE team is not responsible for these packages as they are provided by third parties -- typically, but not always, the distributor of the relevant distribution (if you have any questions, please read the KDE Binary Packages Policy).

kdelibs 2.1.2 requires qt-2.2.3, the free version of which is available from the above locations usually under the name qt-x11-2.2.3, although qt-2.2.4 or qt-2.3.0 is recommended (for anti-aliased fonts, qt-2.3.0 and XFree 4.0.3 or newer is required). KDE 2.1.2 will not work with versions of Qt older than 2.2.3.

At the time of this release, pre-compiled packages are available for:

• Caldera eDesktop 2.4: i386
• RedHat Linux: 7.1: i386
• SuSE Linux (README):
  • 7.1: i386, Sparc and PPC
  • 7.0: i386, PPC, and S390
  • 6.4: i386
  • 6.3: i386
• Tru64 Systems: 4.0e,f,g, or 5.x (README)

About KDE

KDE is an independent, collaborative project by hundreds of developers worldwide to create a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop environment employing a component-based, network-transparent architecture. KDE is working proof of the power of the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software development model to create first-rate technologies on par with and superior to even the most complex commercial software.

KDE and all its components are available for free under Open Source licenses from the KDE server and its mirrors and can also be obtained on CD-ROM. As a result of the dedicated efforts of hundreds of translators, KDE is available in 34 languages and dialects. KDE includes the core KDE libraries, the core desktop environment (including Konqueror), developer packages (including KDevelop), as well as the over 100 applications from the other standard base KDE packages (administration, games, graphics, multimedia, network, PIM and utilities).

For more information about KDE, please visit KDE's web site. More information about KDE 2 is available in two (1, 2) slideshow presentations and on KDE's web site, including an evolving FAQ to answer questions about migrating to KDE 2.1 from KDE 1.x, anti-aliased font tutorials, a number of screenshots, developer information and a developer's KDE 1 - KDE 2 porting guide.