An ed security update has been released for Gentoo Linux

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200410-07
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http://security.gentoo.org/
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Severity: Normal
Title: ed: Insecure temporary file handling
Date: October 09, 2004
Bugs: #66400
ID: 200410-07

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Synopsis
=======

The ed utility is vulnerable to symlink attacks, potentially allowing a local user to overwrite or change rights on arbitrary files with the rights of the user running ed, which could be the root user.



Background
=========

ed is a line-oriented text editor, used to create or modify text files, both interactively and via shell scripts.

Affected packages
================

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Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected
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1 sys-apps/ed = 0.2-r4

Description
==========

ed insecurely creates temporary files in world-writeable directories with predictable names. Given that ed is used in various system shell scripts, they are by extension affected by the same vulnerability.

Impact
=====

A local attacker could create symbolic links in the temporary files directory, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the filesystem. When ed is called, this would result in file access with the rights of the user running the utility, which could be the root user.

Workaround
=========

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution
=========

All ed users should upgrade to the latest version:

# emerge sync

# emerge -pv ">=sys-apps/ed-0.2-r4"
# emerge ">=sys-apps/ed-0.2-r4"

References
=========

[ 1 ] CVE-2000-1137
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2000-1137

Availability
===========

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website:

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200410-07.xml

Concerns?
========

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at http://bugs.gentoo.org.

License
======

Copyright 2004 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text belongs to its owner(s).

The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0