Feynmf: Insecure temporary file creation — GLSA 200711-32

A vulnerability has been discovered in Feynmf allowing local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack.

Affected packages

Background

Feynmf is a combined LaTeX and Metafont package for easy drawing of professional quality Feynman (and maybe other) diagrams.

Description

Kevin B. McCarty discovered that the feynmf.pl script creates a temporary "properly list" file at the location "$TMPDIR/feynmf$PID.pl", where $PID is the process ID.

Impact

A local attacker could create symbolic links in the directory where the temporary files are written, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the filesystem that is writable by the user running Feynmf. When Feynmf writes the temporary file, the target valid file would then be overwritten with the contents of the Feynmf temporary file.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-tex/feynmf-1.08-r2"

References

• CVE-2007-5940

Release date
November 20, 2007

Latest revision
November 20, 2007: 01

Severity
normal

Exploitable
local

Bugzilla entries

• 198231