Cscope: Insecure creation of temporary files

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200412-11 / cscope
Release Date	December 16, 2004
Latest Revision	December 16, 2004: 01
Impact	normal
Exploitable	local

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
dev-util/cscope	< 15.5-r2	>= 15.5-r2	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #71595

Synopsis

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

2. Impact Information

Background

Cscope is a developer utility used to browse and manage source code.

Description

Cscope creates temporary files in world-writable 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 Cscope is executed, this would result in the file being overwritten with the rights of the user running the utility, which could be the root user.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Cscope users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-util/cscope-15.5-r2"

4. References

Page updated December 16, 2004

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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