GLSA 200501-43: f2c: Insecure temporary file creation

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	f2c: Insecure temporary file creation
Date:	01/30/2005
Bugs:	#79725
ID:	200501-43

Synopsis

f2c is vulnerable to symlink attacks, potentially allowing a local user to overwrite arbitrary files.

Background

f2c is a Fortran to C translator. Portage uses this package in some ebuilds to build Fortran sources.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
dev-lang/f2c	<= 20030320	>= 20030320-r1	All supported architectures

Description

Javier Fernandez-Sanguino Pena from the Debian Security Audit Team discovered that f2c 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 f2c is executed, this would result in the file being overwritten with the rights of the user running the software, which could be the root user.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All f2c users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-lang/f2c-20030320-r1"

References

CAN-2005-0017

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200501-43.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.