Title: Tmpwatch Recursive Write DoS Vulnerability
Severity: LOW
Description:
Any user with write access to /tmp or /var/tmp, can induce tmpwatch to cause Red Hat (and others runnng tmpwatch from cron) to stop responding, and possibly require a hard reboot. This is accomplished by creating a directory tree many (ie. ~6000) nodes deep in /tmp. For each level of the directory in /tmp, tmpwatch will fork() a new copy of itself.
Red Hat affected versions:
Red Hat Linux 7.0 (tmpwatch v.2.5.1)
Red Hat Linux 6.2 (tmpwatch v.2.2)
Note:
(excerpted from Internet Security Systems Security Advisory)
"Source code comparison between the Red Hat Linux 6.2 and 7.0 tmpwatch packages
suggests this vulnerability was recognized and a fix was attempted. However,
the fix is incorrect, and the vulnerability is still exploitable.
Do not use the --fuser or -s options with tmpwatch."
Affected Products:
- RedHat Linux 6.1.0 i386
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