Description
GNU gzip contains a vulnerability in the gzexe utility related to insecure temporary file handling. When the mktemp utility is not available in the user’s PATH, gzexe falls back to constructing a temporary file path based solely on the process ID (PID). This predictable filename is created without exclusive access or existence checks. A local attacker can pre‑create the predicted temporary file path as a symbolic link pointing to an arbitrary file writable by the victim. When gzexe runs, it follows the symlink and overwrites the target file, resulting in a time‑of‑check to time‑of‑use (TOCTOU) condition that allows arbitrary file overwrite. This issue has been fixed in the commit 4e6f8b24ab823146ab8776f0b7fe486ab34d4269
CVSS breakdown
CVSS 4.0
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
High
Attack Requirements
Present
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Passive
Confidentiality (Vulnerable System)
None
Integrity (Vulnerable System)
Low
Availability (Vulnerable System)
None
Confidentiality (Subsequent System)
None
Integrity (Subsequent System)
None
Availability (Subsequent System)
None
CVSS 3.1
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None
Affected products
- gnu / gzip0 – 1.14
- gnu / gzip1.14
Updated 9m ago · 8 sources