Heartbeat: Insecure temporary file creation

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200508-05 / Heartbeat
Release Date	August 07, 2005
Latest Revision	August 07, 2005: 01
Impact	normal
Exploitable	local

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
sys-cluster/heartbeat	< 1.2.3-r1	>= 1.2.3-r1	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #97175

Synopsis

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

2. Impact Information

Background

Heartbeat is a component of the High-Availability Linux project. It it used to perform death-of-node detection, communications and cluster management.

Description

Eric Romang has discovered that Heartbeat insecurely creates temporary files with predictable filenames.

Impact

A local attacker could create symbolic links in the temporary file directory, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the filesystem. When a vulnerable script is executed, this could lead to the file being overwritten with the rights of the user running the affected application.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Heartbeat users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-cluster/heartbeat-1.2.3-r1"

4. References

CAN-2005-2231

Page updated August 07, 2005

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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