LMBench: Insecure temporary file usage

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200909-10 / lmbench
Release Date	September 09, 2009
Latest Revision	September 09, 2009: 01
Impact	normal
Exploitable	local

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
app-benchmarks/lmbench	<= 3		All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #246015

Synopsis

Multiple insecure temporary file usage issues have been reported in LMBench, allowing for symlink attacks.

2. Impact Information

Background

LMBench is a suite of simple, portable benchmarks for UNIX platforms.

Description

Dmitry E. Oboukhov reported that the rccs and STUFF scripts do not handle "/tmp/sdiff.#####" temporary files securely. NOTE: There might be further occurances of insecure temporary file usage.

Impact

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

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

LMBench has been removed from Portage. We recommend that users unmerge LMBench:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --unmerge app-benchmarks/lmbench

4. References

CVE-2008-4968

Page updated September 09, 2009

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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