aview: Insecure temporary file usage

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Updated December 14, 2008

1.  Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Version Information

Advisory Reference GLSA 200812-14 / aview
Release Date December 14, 2008
Latest Revision December 14, 2008: 01
Impact normal
Exploitable local
Package Vulnerable versions Unaffected versions Architecture(s)
media-gfx/aview < 1.3.0_rc1-r1 >= 1.3.0_rc1-r1 All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #235808

Synopsis

An insecure temporary file usage has been reported in aview, leading to symlink attacks.

2.  Impact Information

Background

aview is an ASCII image viewer and animation player.

Description

Dmitry E. Oboukhov reported that aview uses the "/tmp/aview$$.pgm" file in an insecure manner when processing files.

Impact

A local attacker could perform symlink attacks to overwrite arbitrary files on the system with the privileges of the user running the application.

3.  Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All aview users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=media-gfx/aview-1.3.0_rc1-r1"

4.  References