Comment 0 for bug 247445

Binary package hint: apt

apt and possibly other Ubuntu package managers capable of downloading packages are vulnerable to two kinds of attacks.

1. Replay attack, where an attacker, by operating a malicious mirror or by spoofing the address of a valid mirror, serves outdated packages lists which are correctly signed. As new vulnerabilities are discovered and patched, the users who are using the malicious mirror won't be receiving any updates and will continue running vulnerable software.
See http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/justin/packagemanagersecurity/attacks-on-package-managers.html

2. Endless data attacks, where an attacker serves very long files to a package manager that uses his malicious mirror. That might prevent the package manager from ever completing, leading to the same problem as described above. That might also consume all disk space preventing logging, mail delivery and other system services from running properly.
See http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/justin/packagemanagersecurity/otherattacks.html#endlessdata

There is also an entry on Ubuntu and Debian in the FAQ at http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/justin/packagemanagersecurity/faq.html