Description
sympa.pl in sympa 5.3.4 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the /tmp/sympa_aliases.$$ temporary file. NOTE: wwsympa.fcgi was also reported, but the issue occurred in a dead function, so it is not a vulnerability.
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 | sympa | 5.3.4-5.1 | — |
| Debian 13 | sympa | 5.3.4-5.1 | — |
| Debian 12 | sympa | 5.3.4-5.1 | — |
References
- [debian-devel] 20080812 Re: Possible mass bug filing: The possibility of attack with the help of symlinks in some Debian packages mailing-list
- http://bugs.debian.org/496405
- sympa-sympa-symlink(44499) vdb-entry
- [oss-security] 20081030 CVE requests: tempfile issues for aview, mgetty, openoffice, crossfire mailing-list
- https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=235770
- 30727 vdb-entry
- http://uvw.ru/report.lenny.txt
- http://dev.gentoo.org/~rbu/security/debiantemp/sympa
- 31458 third-party-advisory
- http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=494969