<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!DOCTYPE glsa SYSTEM "http://www.gentoo.org/dtd/glsa.dtd"> <glsa id="200412-04"> <title>Perl: Insecure temporary file creation</title> <synopsis> Perl is vulnerable to symlink attacks, potentially allowing a local user to overwrite arbitrary files. </synopsis> <product type="ebuild">perl</product> <announced>2004-12-07</announced> <revised count="01">2004-12-07</revised> <bug>66360</bug> <access>local</access> <affected> <package name="dev-lang/perl" auto="yes" arch="*"> <unaffected range="rge">5.8.5-r2</unaffected> <unaffected range="ge">5.8.6-r1</unaffected> <vulnerable range="lt">5.8.5-r2</vulnerable> <vulnerable range="eq">5.8.6</vulnerable> </package> </affected> <background> <p> Perl is a stable, cross-platform programming language created by Larry Wall. </p> </background> <description> <p> Some Perl modules create temporary files in world-writable directories with predictable names. </p> </description> <impact type="normal"> <p> A local attacker could create symbolic links in the temporary files directory, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the filesystem. When a Perl script is executed, this would result in the file being overwritten with the rights of the user running the utility, which could be the root user. </p> </impact> <workaround> <p> There is no known workaround at this time. </p> </workaround> <resolution> <p> All Perl users should upgrade to the latest version: </p> <code> # emerge --sync # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=perl-5.8.5-r2"</code> </resolution> <references> <uri link="https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2004-0976">CAN-2004-0976</uri> <uri link="https://www.trustix.org/errata/2004/0050/">Trustix Advisory #2004-0050</uri> </references> <metadata tag="submitter" timestamp="2004-12-05T01:07:23Z"> lewk </metadata> <metadata tag="bugReady" timestamp="2004-12-06T21:18:17Z"> lewk </metadata> </glsa>