CVE-2009-4135

Published Dec 11, 2009

Last updated 5 months ago

CVSS info 4.4

Overview

Description
The distcheck rule in dist-check.mk in GNU coreutils 5.2.1 through 8.1 allows local users to gain privileges via a symlink attack on a file in a directory tree under /tmp.
Source
secalert@redhat.com
NVD status
Modified
Products
ubuntu_linux, coreutils, fedora

Risk scores

CVSS 2.0

Type
Primary
Base score
4.4
Impact score
6.4
Exploitability score
3.4
Vector string
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-59

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

Vendor comments

  • Red HatThis issue does not affect users using coreutils binary RPMs, or rebuilding source RPMs. Therefore, we do not plan to release updates addressing this flaw on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4 and 5. For additional details, refer to the following bug: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2009-4135

Configurations

Related CVEs

  1. GNU coreutils uniq is vulnerable to an out‑of‑bounds read due to incorrect handling of multibyte input when the -w (--check-chars) option is used. The find_field() function miscalculates the byte length of characters by repeatedly processing a fixed pointer instead of advancing through the input, resulting in an inflated length value. This incorrect length is later used in a memcmp operation, causing reads beyond the allocated buffer when processing crafted multibyte input. When running GNU coreutils uniq with attacker-provided arguments, this behavior leads to a crash and potential adjacent heap memory exposure. This issue has been fixed in the commit d64e35a8a4c0e4608321433e0d84d917e4e36371.•CVE-2026-56391
  2. GNU coreutils unexpand is vulnerable to a heap-based buffer overflow due to an integer overflow during buffer allocation when processing large tab stop (-t) values. The multiplication used to calculate the allocation size can wrap around, resulting in an undersized buffer. When processing crafted input, subsequent writes exceed the allocated memory, leading to an out‑of‑bounds heap write. When running GNU coreutils unexpand with attacker-provided large tab stop (-t) arguments, this behavior leads to a crash and potentially achieve a heap write primitive depending on memory layout. This issue has been fixed in the commit b60a159fdc5bfcf9988d3a4cb6f53abe8ad5d35d•CVE-2026-56392
  3. A symlink following vulnerability was found in the ABRT post-create event handler scripts in libreport. Event scripts write output files using shell redirections without the O_NOFOLLOW flag. If the target file is replaced with a symlink, the shell process running as root follows the symlink and writes content to the symlink target, allowing arbitrary file overwrites on the system.•CVE-2026-54230
  4. A content injection vulnerability was found in the ABRT post-create event handler scripts in libreport. The event script queries the systemd journal for log entries matching the crashed process and writes the results to files in the dump directory without sanitizing embedded control characters. A local user can inject arbitrary content into the journal output by embedding newline characters in syslog messages, controlling the content that root writes to dump directory files.•CVE-2026-54231
  5. Ubuntu Linux 6.8, 6.17 and 7.0 contain AppArmor SAUCE patches which can potentially incorrectly compute the size of an internal buffer, leading to a heap memory out-of-bounds read in notification handling code. The bug can be triggered by an unprivileged local user and can result in invalid data being processed by the AppArmor DFA policy engine.•CVE-2026-47333

References

Sources include official advisories and independent security research.