KDE dcopidlng: Insecure temporary file creation

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200503-14 / dcopidlng
Release Date	March 07, 2005
Latest Revision	March 07, 2005: 01
Impact	normal
Exploitable	local

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
kde-base/kdelibs	< 3.3.2-r5	>= 3.3.2-r5, revision >= 3.2.3-r7	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #81652

Synopsis

The dcopidlng script is vulnerable to symlink attacks, potentially allowing a local user to overwrite arbitrary files.

2. Impact Information

Background

KDE is a feature-rich graphical desktop environment for Linux and Unix-like Operating Systems. DCOP is KDE's simple IPC/RPC mechanism. dcopidlng is a DCOP helper script.

Description

Davide Madrisan has discovered that the dcopidlng script creates temporary files in a world-writable directory 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 dcopidlng 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 kdelibs users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose kde-base/kdelibs

4. References

CAN-2005-0365

Updated March 07, 2005

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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