Scilab: Insecure temporary file usage

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
sci-mathematics/scilab	< 4.1.2-r1	>= 4.1.2-r1	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #245922

An insecure temporary file usage has been reported in Scilab, allowing for symlink attacks.

2. Impact Information

Scilab is a scientific software package for numerical computations.

Dmitry E. Oboukhov reported an insecure temporary file usage within the scilink, scidoc and scidem scripts.

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

3. Resolution Information

There is no known workaround at this time.

All Scilab users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sci-mathematics/scilab-4.1.2-r1"

4. References

Page updated January 21, 2009

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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