J-Security Center

Title: Man Symlink Vulnerability

Severity: MODERATE

Description:

The man command created a temporary file under /tmp with a predictable name and is willing to follow symbolic links. This may allow malicious local users to create arbitrarily named files.

zsoelim(1) is a utility part of the man package which prepocess man pages and satisfy .so requests in roff input. This utility may be called when running the man(1) command. It creates temporary filenames are of the form "/tmp/zman0<pid>aaa" where <pid> is the process id of the zsoelim process. The program fails to check for the existance of symlinks and follows them creating arbitrary files with the permissions of the user running man.

Affected Products:

  • Debian Linux 2.1.0
  • G. Wilford man 2.3.10
  • S.u.S.E. Linux 6.1.0

Juniper Networks provides this content via a wide variety of sources and production methods. If notified of errors or omissions in the content of this page, Juniper Networks, at its discretion, will modify or remove the page or leave the content as is, depending on various factors including but not limited to the reputation and authority of the party providing the notification. Please use the contact information displayed elsewhere on this page to report any errors or omissions regarding the content on this page.