Overview
The implementation of vi, a text editor, provided with SCO Openunix creates insecure temporary files with predictable names. Using a symbolic link attack, an intruder can overwrite any file writable by the user of vi.
Description
vi is a screen-oriented text editor. The implementation distributed with SCO Openunix creates temporary files in the world-writable directory /tmp with predictable names, and fails to check for prior ownership and protection of these files. |
Impact
By creating symbolic links named for the files that vi creates, an intruder may overwrite any file writable by the user of vi. Since the intruder cannot control the content of the overwritten files, it does not seem likely that an increase in privilege will result. |
Solution
Apply vendor patches; see the Systems Affected section below. |
Vendor Information
CVSS Metrics
| Group | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|
| Base | ||
| Temporal | ||
| Environmental |
References
Acknowledgements
This vulnerability was first reported by Richard Johnson.
This document was last edited by Tim Shimeall
Other Information
| CVE IDs: | CVE-2001-0627 |
| Severity Metric: | 1.01 |
| Date Public: | 2001-05-31 |
| Date First Published: | 2001-10-09 |
| Date Last Updated: | 2001-10-09 15:41 UTC |
| Document Revision: | 13 |