[ GLSA 200411-15 ] OpenSSL, Groff: Insecure tempfile handling

[GLSA]

Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Title: OpenSSL, Groff: Insecure tempfile handling (GLSA 200411-15)
Severity: normal
Exploitable: local
Date: November 08, 2004
Updated: August 23, 2006
Bug(s): #68404, #68407
ID: 200411-15

Synopsis

groffer, included in the Groff package, and the der_chop script, included in the OpenSSL package, are both vulnerable to symlink attacks, potentially allowing a local user to overwrite arbitrary files with the rights of the user running the utility.

Background

OpenSSL is a toolkit implementing the Secure Sockets Layer and Transport Layer Security protocols as well as a general-purpose cryptography library. It includes the der_chop script, which is used to convert DER-encoded certificates to PEM format. Groff (GNU Troff) is a typesetting package which reads plain text mixed with formatting commands and produces formatted output. It includes groffer, a command used to display groff files and man pages on X and tty.

Affected Packages

Package: dev-libs/openssl
Vulnerable: < 0.9.7d-r2
Unaffected: >= 0.9.7d-r2
Architectures: All supported architectures

Package: sys-apps/groff
Vulnerable: < 1.19.1-r2
Unaffected: >= 1.19.1-r2
Unaffected: >= 1.18.1.1 < 1.18.1.2
Architectures: All supported architectures


Description

groffer and the der_chop script create temporary files in world-writeable directories with predictable names.

Impact

A local attacker could create symbolic links in the temporary files directory, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the filesystem. When groffer or der_chop is executed, this would result in the file being overwritten with the rights of the user running the utility, which could be the root user.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Groff users should upgrade to the latest version: