Description
In ioquake3 before 2017-03-14, the auto-downloading feature has insufficient content restrictions. This also affects Quake III Arena, OpenArena, OpenJK, iortcw, and other id Tech 3 (aka Quake 3 engine) forks. A malicious auto-downloaded file can trigger loading of crafted auto-downloaded files as native code DLLs. A malicious auto-downloaded file can contain configuration defaults that override the user's. Executable bytecode in a malicious auto-downloaded file can set configuration variables to values that will result in unwanted native code DLLs being loaded, resulting in sandbox escape.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | ioquake3 | 1.36+u20161101+dfsg1-2 | — |
| Debian 14 | iortcw | 1.50a+dfsg1-3 | — |
| Debian 13 | ioquake3 | 1.36+u20161101+dfsg1-2 | — |
| Debian 13 | iortcw | 1.50a+dfsg1-3 | — |
| Debian 12 | ioquake3 | 1.36+u20161101+dfsg1-2 | — |
| Debian 12 | iortcw | 1.50a+dfsg1-3 | — |
| Debian 8 | ioquake3 | 1.36+u20140802+gca9eebb-2+deb8u1 | DSA-3812-1 |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | ioquake3 | No fix yet | — |
Advisories 1
- DSA-3812-1 ioquake3 - security update Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
References
- https://github.com/iortcw/iortcw/commit/11a83410153756ae350a82ed41b08d128ff7f998
- DSA-3812 vendor-advisory
- https://github.com/iortcw/iortcw/commit/b248763e4878ef12d5835ece6600be8334f67da1
- https://github.com/ioquake/ioq3/commit/b173ac05993f634a42be3d3535e1b158de0c3372
- https://github.com/JACoders/OpenJK/commit/8956a35e7b91c4a0dd1fa6db1d28c7f0efbab2d7
- https://github.com/ioquake/ioq3/commit/f61fe5f6a0419ef4a88d46a128052f2e8352e85d
- https://ioquake3.org/2017/03/13/important-security-update-please-update-ioquake3-immediately/
- https://github.com/ioquake/ioq3/commit/376267d534476a875d8b9228149c4ee18b74a4fd
- https://github.com/iortcw/iortcw/commit/b6ff2bcb1e4e6976d61e316175c6d7c99860fe20
- https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=857699