The hack-local-variable function in Emacs 22 prior to version 22.2, when enable-local-variables is set to ":safe", did not properly search lists of unsafe or risky variables, which could allow user-assisted attackers to bypass intended restrictions and modify critical program variables via a file containing a Local variables declaration . A stack-based buffer overflow in emacs could allow user-assisted attackers to cause an application crash or possibly have other unspecified impacts via a large precision value in an integer format string specifier to the format function . The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues.