GLSA 200410-10: gettext: Insecure temporary file handling

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	low
Title:	gettext: Insecure temporary file handling
Date:	10/10/2004
Bugs:	#66355, #85766
ID:	200410-10

Synopsis

The gettext utility is vulnerable to symlink attacks, potentially allowing a local user to overwrite or change permissions on arbitrary files with the rights of the user running gettext, which could be the root user.

Background

gettext is a set of utilities for the GNU Translation Project which provides a set of tools and documentation to help produce multi-lingual messages in programs.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
sys-devel/gettext	< 0.14.1-r1	>= 0.14.1-r1	All supported architectures

Description

gettext insecurely creates temporary files in world-writeable directories with predictable names.

Impact

A local attacker could create symbolic links in the temporary files directory, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the filesystem. When gettext is called, this would result in file access with the rights of the user running the utility, which could be the root user.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All gettext users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-devel/gettext-0.14.1-r1"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200410-10.xml

Concerns?

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at https://bugs.gentoo.org.