GLSA 200411-13: Portage, Gentoolkit: Temporary file vulnerabilities

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	Portage, Gentoolkit: Temporary file vulnerabilities
Date:	11/07/2004
Bugs:	#68846, #69147
ID:	200411-13

Synopsis

dispatch-conf (included in Portage) and qpkg (included in Gentoolkit) are vulnerable to symlink attacks, potentially allowing a local user to overwrite arbitrary files with the rights of the user running the script.

Background

Portage is Gentoo's package management tool. The dispatch-conf utility allows for easy rollback of configuration file changes and automatic updates of configurations files never modified by users. Gentoolkit is a collection of Gentoo specific administration scripts, one of which is the portage querying tool qpkg.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
sys-apps/portage	<= 2.0.51-r2	>= 2.0.51-r3	All supported architectures
app-portage/gentoolkit	<= 0.2.0_pre10	>= 0.2.0_pre10-r1	All supported architectures

Description

dispatch-conf and qpkg use predictable filenames for temporary files.

Impact

A local attacker could create symbolic links in the temporary files directory, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the filesystem. When an affected script is called, this would result in the file to be overwritten with the rights of the user running the dispatch-conf or qpkg, which could be the root user.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Portage users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-apps/portage-2.0.51-r3"

All Gentoolkit users should upgrade to the latest version:


    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=app-portage/gentoolkit-0.2.0_pre8-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-200411-13.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.