Description
Race condition in IMWheel 1.0.0pre11 and earlier, when running with the -k option, allows local users to cause a denial of service (IMWheel crash) and possibly modify arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the imwheel.pid file.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | imwheel | 1.0.0pre12-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | imwheel | 1.0.0pre12-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | imwheel | 1.0.0pre12-1 | — |
Public exploits
Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.
Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.
Exploit-DB 1
- IMWheel 1.0 - Predictable Temporary File Creation EDB-24398 · local · Aug 23, 2004 · verified
Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.
References
- imwheel-race-condition(17082) vdb-entry
- 1011049 vdb-entry
- 12349 third-party-advisory
- 11008 vdb-entry
- http://www.caughq.org/advisories/CAU-2004-0002.txt
- http://imwheel.sourceforge.net/files/DEVELOPMENT.txt
- 20040820 CAU-2004-0002 - imwheel Predictable PidFile Name Race Condition mailing-list
- 9111 vdb-entry