Qemu before version 2.9 is vulnerable to an improper link following when built with the VirtFS. A privileged user inside guest could use this flaw to access host file system beyond the shared folder and potentially escalating their privileges on a host.

The postinst script in the tomcat6 package before 6.0.45+dfsg-1~deb7u4 on Debian wheezy, before 6.0.35-1ubuntu3.9 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS; the tomcat7 package before 7.0.28-4+deb7u8 on Debian wheezy, before 7.0.56-3+deb8u6 on Debian jessie, before 7.0.52-1ubuntu0.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS, and 16.10; and the tomcat8 package before 8.0.14-1+deb8u5 on Debian jessie, before 8.0.32-1ubuntu1.3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, before 8.0.37-1ubuntu0.1 on Ubuntu 16.10, and before 8.0.38-2ubuntu1 on Ubuntu 17.04 might allow local users with access to the tomcat account to obtain sensitive information or gain root privileges via a symlink attack on the Catalina localhost directory.

squashfs_opendir in unsquash-2.c in Squashfs-Tools 4.5 allows Directory Traversal, a different vulnerability than CVE-2021-40153. A squashfs filesystem that has been crafted to include a symbolic link and then contents under the same filename in a filesystem can cause unsquashfs to first create the symbolic link pointing outside the expected directory, and then the subsequent write operation will cause the unsquashfs process to write through the symbolic link elsewhere in the filesystem.

Mumble before 1.3.4 allows remote code execution if a victim navigates to a crafted URL on a server list and clicks on the Open Webpage text.

Tar.php in Archive_Tar through 1.4.11 allows write operations with Directory Traversal due to inadequate checking of symbolic links, a related issue to CVE-2020-28948.

An issue was discovered in Cinnamon 1.9.2 through 3.8.6. The cinnamon-settings-users.py GUI runs as root and allows configuration of (for example) other users' icon files in _on_face_browse_menuitem_activated and _on_face_menuitem_activated. These icon files are written to the respective user's $HOME/.face location. If an unprivileged user prepares a symlink pointing to an arbitrary location, then this location will be overwritten with the icon content.

multipath-tools 0.7.7 through 0.9.x before 0.9.2 allows local users to obtain root access, as exploited in conjunction with CVE-2022-41974. Local users able to access /dev/shm can change symlinks in multipathd due to incorrect symlink handling, which could lead to controlled file writes outside of the /dev/shm directory. This could be used indirectly for local privilege escalation to root.

Git is an open source, scalable, distributed revision control system. Versions prior to 2.30.6, 2.31.5, 2.32.4, 2.33.5, 2.34.5, 2.35.5, 2.36.3, and 2.37.4 are subject to exposure of sensitive information to a malicious actor. When performing a local clone (where the source and target of the clone are on the same volume), Git copies the contents of the source's `$GIT_DIR/objects` directory into the destination by either creating hardlinks to the source contents, or copying them (if hardlinks are disabled via `--no-hardlinks`). A malicious actor could convince a victim to clone a repository with a symbolic link pointing at sensitive information on the victim's machine. This can be done either by having the victim clone a malicious repository on the same machine, or having them clone a malicious repository embedded as a bare repository via a submodule from any source, provided they clone with the `--recurse-submodules` option. Git does not create symbolic links in the `$GIT_DIR/objects` directory. The problem has been patched in the versions published on 2022-10-18, and backported to v2.30.x. Potential workarounds: Avoid cloning untrusted repositories using the `--local` optimization when on a shared machine, either by passing the `--no-local` option to `git clone` or cloning from a URL that uses the `file://` scheme. Alternatively, avoid cloning repositories from untrusted sources with `--recurse-submodules` or run `git config --global protocol.file.allow user`.

In Perl through 5.26.2, the Archive::Tar module allows remote attackers to bypass a directory-traversal protection mechanism, and overwrite arbitrary files, via an archive file containing a symlink and a regular file with the same name.

A flaw was found in RPC request using gfs3_symlink_req in glusterfs server which allows symlink destinations to point to file paths outside of the gluster volume. An authenticated attacker could use this flaw to create arbitrary symlinks pointing anywhere on the server and execute arbitrary code on glusterfs server nodes.

kwallet-pam in KDE KWallet before 5.12.6 allows local users to obtain ownership of arbitrary files via a symlink attack.

rubyzip gem rubyzip version 1.2.1 and earlier contains a Directory Traversal vulnerability in Zip::File component that can result in write arbitrary files to the filesystem. This attack appear to be exploitable via If a site allows uploading of .zip files , an attacker can upload a malicious file that contains symlinks or files with absolute pathnames "../" to write arbitrary files to the filesystem..

The changelog command in Apt before 1.0.9.2 allows local users to write to arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the changelog file.

Lintian before 2.5.12 allows remote attackers to gather information about the "host" system using crafted symlinks.

ltpmenu in ltp 20060918 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a /tmp/runltp.mainmenu.##### temporary file.

os-prober in os-prober 1.17 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the (1) /tmp/mounted-map or (2) /tmp/raided-map temporary file. NOTE: the vendor disputes this issue, stating "the insecure code path should only ever run inside a d-i environment, which has no non-root users.

trend-autoupdate.new in mailscanner 4.55.10 and other versions before 4.74.16-1 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a (1) /tmp/opr.ini.##### or (2) /tmp/lpt*.zip temporary file.

/bin/login in shadow 4.0.18.1 in Debian GNU/Linux, and probably other Linux distributions, allows local users in the utmp group to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a temporary file referenced in a line (aka ut_line) field in a utmp entry.

It was found that the fix for CVE-2018-10927, CVE-2018-10928, CVE-2018-10929, CVE-2018-10930, and CVE-2018-10926 was incomplete. A remote, authenticated attacker could use one of these flaws to execute arbitrary code, create arbitrary files, or cause denial of service on glusterfs server nodes via symlinks to relative paths.

gccross in dpkg-cross 2.3.0 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the tmp/gccross2.log temporary file. NOTE: the vendor disputes this vulnerability, stating that "There is no sense in this bug - the script ... is called under specific cross-building environments within a chroot.

i2myspell in myspell 3.1 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on (1) /tmp/i2my#####.1 and (2) /tmp/i2my#####.2 temporary files.

migrate_aliases.sh in Citadel Server 7.37 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a temporary file.

test.sh in Honeyd 1.5c might allow local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a temporary file.

(1) xenbaked and (2) xenmon.py in Xen 3.1 and earlier allow local users to truncate arbitrary files via a symlink attack on /tmp/xenq-shm.

MySQL before 5.0.67 allows local users to bypass certain privilege checks by calling CREATE TABLE on a MyISAM table with modified (1) DATA DIRECTORY or (2) INDEX DIRECTORY arguments that are originally associated with pathnames without symlinks, and that can point to tables created at a future time at which a pathname is modified to contain a symlink to a subdirectory of the MySQL home data directory. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2008-4097.

RARLAB UnRAR before 6.12 on Linux and UNIX allows directory traversal to write to files during an extract (aka unpack) operation, as demonstrated by creating a ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file. NOTE: WinRAR and Android RAR are unaffected.

qemu-make-debian-root in qemu 0.9.1-5 on Debian GNU/Linux allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on temporary files and directories.

The to-upgrade plugin in feta 1.4.16 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink on the (1) /tmp/feta.install.$USER and (2) /tmp/feta.avail.$USER temporary files.

The save function in br/prefmanager.d in projectl 1.001 creates a projectL.prf file in the current working directory, which allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack.

In KDE Ark before 20.08.1, a crafted TAR archive with symlinks can install files outside the extraction directory, as demonstrated by a write operation to a user's home directory.

w_editeur.c in XWine 1.0.1 for Debian GNU/Linux allows local users to overwrite or print arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the temporaire temporary file. NOTE: some of these details are obtained from third party information.

The write_array_file function in utils/include.pl in GForge 4.5.14 updates configuration files by truncating them to zero length and then writing new data, which might allow attackers to bypass intended access restrictions or have unspecified other impact in opportunistic circumstances.

vobcopy 0.5.14 allows local users to append data to an arbitrary file, or create an arbitrary new file, via a symlink attack on the (1) /tmp/vobcopy.bla or (2) /tmp/vobcopy_0.5.14.log temporary file.

Insufficient data validation in installer in Google Chrome prior to 86.0.4240.183 allowed a local attacker to potentially elevate privilege via a crafted filesystem.

Samba before versions 4.6.1, 4.5.7 and 4.4.11 are vulnerable to a malicious client using a symlink race to allow access to areas of the server file system not exported under the share definition.

NLnet Labs Unbound, up to and including version 1.12.0, and NLnet Labs NSD, up to and including version 4.3.3, contain a local vulnerability that would allow for a local symlink attack. When writing the PID file, Unbound and NSD create the file if it is not there, or open an existing file for writing. In case the file was already present, they would follow symlinks if the file happened to be a symlink instead of a regular file. An additional chown of the file would then take place after it was written, making the user Unbound/NSD is supposed to run as the new owner of the file. If an attacker has local access to the user Unbound/NSD runs as, she could create a symlink in place of the PID file pointing to a file that she would like to erase. If then Unbound/NSD is killed and the PID file is not cleared, upon restarting with root privileges, Unbound/NSD will rewrite any file pointed at by the symlink. This is a local vulnerability that could create a Denial of Service of the system Unbound/NSD is running on. It requires an attacker having access to the limited permission user Unbound/NSD runs as and point through the symlink to a critical file on the system.

atop: symlink attack possible due to insecure tempfile handling

Hardlink before 0.1.2 operates on full file system objects path names which can allow a local attacker to use this flaw to conduct symlink attacks.

In libXfont before 1.5.4 and libXfont2 before 2.0.3, a local attacker can open (but not read) files on the system as root, triggering tape rewinds, watchdogs, or similar mechanisms that can be triggered by opening files.

Cool Projects TarDiff allows local users to write to arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a pathname in a /tmp/tardiff-$$ temporary directory.

The npm package "tar" (aka node-tar) before versions 4.4.16, 5.0.8, and 6.1.7 has an arbitrary file creation/overwrite and arbitrary code execution vulnerability. node-tar aims to guarantee that any file whose location would be modified by a symbolic link is not extracted. This is, in part, achieved by ensuring that extracted directories are not symlinks. Additionally, in order to prevent unnecessary stat calls to determine whether a given path is a directory, paths are cached when directories are created. This logic was insufficient when extracting tar files that contained both a directory and a symlink with the same name as the directory, where the symlink and directory names in the archive entry used backslashes as a path separator on posix systems. The cache checking logic used both `\` and `/` characters as path separators, however `\` is a valid filename character on posix systems. By first creating a directory, and then replacing that directory with a symlink, it was thus possible to bypass node-tar symlink checks on directories, essentially allowing an untrusted tar file to symlink into an arbitrary location and subsequently extracting arbitrary files into that location, thus allowing arbitrary file creation and overwrite. Additionally, a similar confusion could arise on case-insensitive filesystems. If a tar archive contained a directory at `FOO`, followed by a symbolic link named `foo`, then on case-insensitive file systems, the creation of the symbolic link would remove the directory from the filesystem, but _not_ from the internal directory cache, as it would not be treated as a cache hit. A subsequent file entry within the `FOO` directory would then be placed in the target of the symbolic link, thinking that the directory had already been created. These issues were addressed in releases 4.4.16, 5.0.8 and 6.1.7. The v3 branch of node-tar has been deprecated and did not receive patches for these issues. If you are still using a v3 release we recommend you update to a more recent version of node-tar. If this is not possible, a workaround is available in the referenced GHSA-9r2w-394v-53qc.

An issue was discovered in GNOME GLib before 2.66.8. When g_file_replace() is used with G_FILE_CREATE_REPLACE_DESTINATION to replace a path that is a dangling symlink, it incorrectly also creates the target of the symlink as an empty file, which could conceivably have security relevance if the symlink is attacker-controlled. (If the path is a symlink to a file that already exists, then the contents of that file correctly remain unchanged.)

An improper link resolution flaw while extracting an archive can lead to changing the access control list (ACL) of the target of the link. An attacker may provide a malicious archive to a victim user, who would trigger this flaw when trying to extract the archive. A local attacker may use this flaw to change the ACL of a file on the system and gain more privileges.

Git is an open-source distributed revision control system. In affected versions of Git a specially crafted repository that contains symbolic links as well as files using a clean/smudge filter such as Git LFS, may cause just-checked out script to be executed while cloning onto a case-insensitive file system such as NTFS, HFS+ or APFS (i.e. the default file systems on Windows and macOS). Note that clean/smudge filters have to be configured for that. Git for Windows configures Git LFS by default, and is therefore vulnerable. The problem has been patched in the versions published on Tuesday, March 9th, 2021. As a workaound, if symbolic link support is disabled in Git (e.g. via `git config --global core.symlinks false`), the described attack won't work. Likewise, if no clean/smudge filters such as Git LFS are configured globally (i.e. _before_ cloning), the attack is foiled. As always, it is best to avoid cloning repositories from untrusted sources. The earliest impacted version is 2.14.2. The fix versions are: 2.30.1, 2.29.3, 2.28.1, 2.27.1, 2.26.3, 2.25.5, 2.24.4, 2.23.4, 2.22.5, 2.21.4, 2.20.5, 2.19.6, 2.18.5, 2.17.62.17.6.

storeBackup.pl in storeBackup through 3.5 relies on the /tmp/storeBackup.lock pathname, which allows symlink attacks that possibly lead to privilege escalation. (Local users can also create a plain file named /tmp/storeBackup.lock to block use of storeBackup until an admin manually deletes that file.)

The Qualcomm Innovation Center (QuIC) init scripts in Code Aurora Forum (CAF) releases of Android 4.1.x through 4.4.x allow local users to modify file metadata via a symlink attack on a file accessed by a (1) chown or (2) chmod command, as demonstrated by changing the permissions of an arbitrary file via an attack on the sensor-settings file.

fuse 2.8.5 and earlier does not properly handle when /etc/mtab cannot be updated, which allows local users to unmount arbitrary directories via a symlink attack.