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  • From: Thomas Houssin <thomas.houssin AT gmail.com>
  • To: sm-security <sm-security AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [SM-Security] graphviz: symlink/tmp attack
  • Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 23:51:09 +0100

Synopsis
========
graphviz is vulnerable to a symlink attack.

Background
==========
graphviz is a set of graph drawing tools including a web service
interface (webdot). Graph drawing addresses the problem of visualizing
structural information by constructing geometric representations of
abstract graphs and networks.

Description
===========
CAN-2005-2965:
Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña discovered insecure temporary file
creation in graphviz that can be exploited to overwrite arbitrary files
by a local attacker.

Impact
======
A local attacker could create symbolic links in the temporary files
directory, pointing to a valid file. When graphviz is executed, this
would result in the file being overwritten with the rights of the user
running the application.

Workaround
==========
There are no known workarounds at this time.

Affected packages
=================
This is now fixed in all grimoires.

Resolution
==========
All graphviz users should upgrade to the latest available version:
# scribe update
# cast -c graphviz

References
==========
[ 1 ] CAN-2005-2965
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2005-2965

--
Thomas Houssin

Security Team Leader Source Mage GNU/Linux (http://www.sourcemage.org)
Key fingerprint = 3CB8 3FC4 840D B272 E623 BCB8 54DB F4E3 4240 4C36
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x42404C36




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  • [SM-Security] graphviz: symlink/tmp attack, Thomas Houssin, 11/13/2005

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