The LXC driver (lxc/lxc_driver.c) in libvirt 1.0.1 through 1.2.1 allows local users to (1) delete arbitrary host devices via the virDomainDeviceDettach API and a symlink attack on /dev in the container; (2) create arbitrary nodes (mknod) via the virDomainDeviceAttach API and a symlink attack on /dev in the container; and cause a denial of service (shutdown or reboot host OS) via the (3) virDomainShutdown or (4) virDomainReboot API and a symlink attack on /dev/initctl in the container, related to "paths under /proc/$PID/root" and the virInitctlSetRunLevel function.

fish before 2.1.1 allows local users to write to arbitrary files via a symlink attack on (1) /tmp/fishd.log.%s, (2) /tmp/.pac-cache.$USER, (3) /tmp/.yum-cache.$USER, or (4) /tmp/.rpm-cache.$USER.

The _rl_tropen function in util.c in GNU readline before 6.3 patch 3 allows local users to create or overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a /var/tmp/rltrace.[PID] file.

rss-newsfeed.php in Nagios Core 3.4.4, 3.5.1, and earlier, when MAGPIE_CACHE_ON is set to 1, allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on /tmp/magpie_cache.

The (1) shell_exec function in lib/util/MiqSshUtilV1.rb and (2) temp_cmd_file function in lib/util/MiqSshUtilV2.rb in Red Hat CloudForms 3.0 Management Engine (CFME) before 5.2.4.2 allow local users to execute arbitrary commands via a symlink attack on a temporary file with a predictable name.

(1) oo-analytics-export and (2) oo-analytics-import in the openshift-origin-broker-util package in Red Hat OpenShift Enterprise 1 and 2 allow local users to have unspecified impact via a symlink attack on an unspecified file in /tmp.

Red Hat Storage 2.0 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the (1) e, (2) local-bricks.list, (3) bricks.err, or (4) limits.conf files in /tmp.

The (1) tomcat5, (2) tomcat6, and (3) tomcat7 init scripts, as used in the RPM distribution of Tomcat for JBoss Enterprise Web Server 1.0.2 and 2.0.0, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6, allow local users to change the ownership of arbitrary files via a symlink attack on (a) tomcat5-initd.log, (b) tomcat6-initd.log, (c) catalina.out, or (d) tomcat7-initd.log.

nagios.upgrade_to_v3.sh, as distributed by Red Hat and possibly others for Nagios Core 3.4.4, 3.5.1, and earlier, allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a temporary nagioscfg file with a predictable name in /tmp/.

pip before 1.3 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a file in the /tmp/pip-build temporary directory.

OpenFabrics ibutils 1.5.7 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on (1) ibdiagnet.db, (2) ibdiagnet.fdbs, (3) ibdiagnet_ibis.log, (4) ibdiagnet.log, (5) ibdiagnet.lst, (6) ibdiagnet.mcfdbs, (7) ibdiagnet.pkey, (8) ibdiagnet.psl, (9) ibdiagnet.slvl, or (10) ibdiagnet.sm in /tmp/.

The fedora-business-cards package before 1-0.1.beta1.fc17 on Fedora 17 and before 1-0.1.beta1.fc18 on Fedora 18 allows local users to cause a denial of service or write to arbitrary files via a symlink attack on /tmp/fedora-business-cards-buffer.svg.

HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) through 3.12.4 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the (1) /tmp/hpcupsfilterc_#.bmp, (2) /tmp/hpcupsfilterk_#.bmp, (3) /tmp/hpcups_job#.out, (4) /tmp/hpijs_#####.out, or (5) /tmp/hpps_job#.out temporary file, a different vulnerability than CVE-2011-2722.

init_tmp in TeeJee.FileSystem.vala in Timeshift before 20.03 unsafely reuses a preexisting temporary directory in the predictable location /tmp/timeshift. It follows symlinks in this location or uses directories owned by unprivileged users. Because Timeshift also executes scripts under this location, an attacker can attempt to win a race condition to replace scripts created by Timeshift with attacker-controlled scripts. Upon success, an attacker-controlled script is executed with full root privileges. This logic is practically always triggered when Timeshift runs regardless of the command-line arguments used.

The LiveUpdate capability (liveupdate.sh) in Symantec AntiVirus Scan Engine 4.0 and 4.3 for Red Hat Linux allows local users to create or append to arbitrary files via a symlink attack on /tmp/LiveUpdate.log.

Inappropriate implementation in installer in Google Chrome prior to 84.0.4147.125 allowed a local attacker to potentially elevate privilege via a crafted filesystem.

A certain Red Hat script for sudo 1.7.2 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the /var/tmp/nsswitch.conf.bak temporary file.

Inappropriate implementation in installer in Google Chrome on OS X prior to 83.0.4103.61 allowed a local attacker to perform privilege escalation via a crafted file.

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.

fr-archive-libarchive.c in GNOME file-roller through 3.38.0, as used by GNOME Shell and other software, allows Directory Traversal during extraction because it lacks a check of whether a file's parent is a symlink in certain complex situations. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2020-11736.

A Zip Slip vulnerability was found in the oc binary in openshift-clients where an arbitrary file write is achieved by using a specially crafted raw container image (.tar file) which contains symbolic links. The vulnerability is limited to the command `oc image extract`. If a symbolic link is first created pointing within the tarball, this allows further symbolic links to bypass the existing path check. This flaw allows the tarball to create links outside the tarball's parent directory, allowing for executables or configuration files to be overwritten, resulting in arbitrary code execution. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality, integrity, as well as system availability. Versions up to and including openshift-clients-4.7.0-202104250659.p0.git.95881af are affected.

Argument injection vulnerability in devscripts before 2.15.7 allows remote attackers to write to arbitrary files via a crafted symlink and crafted filename.

A flaw was found in Mercurial before 4.9. It was possible to use symlinks and subrepositories to defeat Mercurial's path-checking logic and write files outside a repository.

An issue was discovered in crun before 0.10.5. With a crafted image, it doesn't correctly check whether a target is a symlink, resulting in access to files outside of the container. This occurs in libcrun/linux.c and libcrun/chroot_realpath.c.

Versions of the npm CLI prior to 6.13.3 are vulnerable to an Arbitrary File Write. It is possible for packages to create symlinks to files outside of thenode_modules folder through the bin field upon installation. A properly constructed entry in the package.json bin field would allow a package publisher to create a symlink pointing to arbitrary files on a user's system when the package is installed. This behavior is still possible through install scripts. This vulnerability bypasses a user using the --ignore-scripts install option.

A flaw was found in Go. When FIPS mode is enabled on a system, container runtimes may incorrectly handle certain file paths due to improper validation in the containers/common Go library. This flaw allows an attacker to exploit symbolic links and trick the system into mounting sensitive host directories inside a container. This issue also allows attackers to access critical host files, bypassing the intended isolation between containers and the host system.

deepin-clone before 1.1.3 uses a predictable path /tmp/.deepin-clone/mount/<block-dev-basename> in the Helper::temporaryMountDevice() function to temporarily mount a file system as root. An unprivileged user can prepare a symlink at this location to have the file system mounted in an arbitrary location. By winning a race condition, the attacker can also enter the mount point, thereby preventing a subsequent unmount of the file system.

A vulnerability was found in GNU Nano that allows a possible privilege escalation through an insecure temporary file. If Nano is killed while editing, a file it saves to an emergency file with the permissions of the running user provides a window of opportunity for attackers to escalate privileges through a malicious symlink.

The kubectl cp command allows copying files between containers and the user machine. To copy files from a container, Kubernetes creates a tar inside the container, copies it over the network, and kubectl unpacks it on the user’s machine. If the tar binary in the container is malicious, it could run any code and output unexpected, malicious results. An attacker could use this to write files to any path on the user’s machine when kubectl cp is called, limited only by the system permissions of the local user. The untar function can both create and follow symbolic links. The issue is resolved in kubectl v1.11.9, v1.12.7, v1.13.5, and v1.14.0.

foomatic-rip filter v4.0.12 and prior used insecurely creates temporary files for storage of PostScript data by rendering the data when the debug mode was enabled. This flaw may be exploited by a local attacker to conduct symlink attacks by overwriting arbitrary files accessible with the privileges of the user running the foomatic-rip universal print filter.

The combination of primitives offered by SMB and AFP in their default configuration allows the arbitrary writing of files. By exploiting these combination of primitives, an attacker can execute arbitrary code.

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.

A directory traversal issue was found in reposync, a part of yum-utils, where reposync fails to sanitize paths in remote repository configuration files. If an attacker controls a repository, they may be able to copy files outside of the destination directory on the targeted system via path traversal. If reposync is running with heightened privileges on a targeted system, this flaw could potentially result in system compromise via the overwriting of critical system files. Version 1.1.31 and older are believed to be affected.

Context relabeling of filesystems is vulnerable to symbolic link attack, allowing a local, unprivileged malicious entity to change the SELinux context of an arbitrary file to a context with few restrictions. This only happens when the relabeling process is done, usually when taking SELinux state from disabled to enable (permissive or enforcing). The issue was found in policycoreutils 2.5-11.

All versions of Samba prior to 4.15.5 are vulnerable to a malicious client using a server symlink to determine if a file or directory exists in an area of the server file system not exported under the share definition. SMB1 with unix extensions has to be enabled in order for this attack to succeed.

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..

It was found that versions of rpm before 4.13.0.2 use temporary files with predictable names when installing an RPM. An attacker with ability to write in a directory where files will be installed could create symbolic links to an arbitrary location and modify content, and possibly permissions to arbitrary files, which could be used for denial of service or possibly privilege escalation.

It was found that rpm did not properly handle RPM installations when a destination path was a symbolic link to a directory, possibly changing ownership and permissions of an arbitrary directory, and RPM files being placed in an arbitrary destination. An attacker, with write access to a directory in which a subdirectory will be installed, could redirect that directory to an arbitrary location and gain root privilege.

A flaw was found in instack-undercloud 7.2.0 as packaged in Red Hat OpenStack Platform Pike, 6.1.0 as packaged in Red Hat OpenStack Platform Oacta, 5.3.0 as packaged in Red Hat OpenStack Newton, where pre-install and security policy scripts used insecure temporary files. A local user could exploit this flaw to conduct a symbolic-link attack, allowing them to overwrite the contents of arbitrary files.

Inappropriate implementation in Google Updater in Google Chrome on Windows prior to 94.0.4606.54 allowed a remote attacker to perform local privilege escalation via a crafted file.

A race condition vulnerability was found in rpm. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to bypass the checks that were introduced in response to CVE-2017-7500 and CVE-2017-7501, potentially gaining root privileges. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.

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.

In Archive_Tar before 1.4.14, symlinks can refer to targets outside of the extracted archive, a different vulnerability than CVE-2020-36193.

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.

selinux_edit_copy_tfiles in sudoedit in Sudo before 1.9.5 allows a local unprivileged user to gain file ownership and escalate privileges by replacing a temporary file with a symlink to an arbitrary file target. This affects SELinux RBAC support in permissive mode. Machines without SELinux are not vulnerable.

The sudoedit personality of Sudo before 1.9.5 may allow a local unprivileged user to perform arbitrary directory-existence tests by winning a sudo_edit.c race condition in replacing a user-controlled directory by a symlink to an arbitrary path.

cache.py in Suds 0.4, when tempdir is set to None, allows local users to redirect SOAP queries and possibly have other unspecified impact via a symlink attack on a cache file with a predictable name in /tmp/suds/.

There is an open race window when writing output in the following utilities in GNU binutils version 2.35 and earlier:ar, objcopy, strip, ranlib. When these utilities are run as a privileged user (presumably as part of a script updating binaries across different users), an unprivileged user can trick these utilities into getting ownership of arbitrary files through a symlink.

A flaw was found in katello-debug before 3.4.0 where certain scripts and log files used insecure temporary files. A local user could exploit this flaw to conduct a symbolic-link attack, allowing them to overwrite the contents of arbitrary files.