PT-2011-1198 · Gnu+1 · Groff+1

Nico Golde · Published 2011-06-30 · Updated 2016-02-04 · CVE-2009-5079

Positive Technologies (AI Summary)

CVSS v2.0

6.4

Medium

Base vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

Name of the Vulnerable Software and Affected Versions groff versions prior to 1.22.2

Description The issue concerns multiple vulnerabilities in the groff package that can be exploited to compromise the integrity and availability of protected information. Exploitation can be performed remotely. Specifically, certain scripts in GNU troff, including gendef.sh, doc/fixinfo.sh, and contrib/gdiffmk/tests/runtests.in, are vulnerable to a symlink attack, allowing local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a temporary file in /tmp.

Recommendations For groff versions prior to 1.22.2, update to version 1.22.2 or later to resolve the issue. As a temporary workaround, consider restricting access to the vulnerable scripts gendef.sh, doc/fixinfo.sh, and contrib/gdiffmk/tests/runtests.in to minimize the risk of exploitation. Avoid using temporary files in /tmp that could be targeted by a symlink attack until the issue is resolved.

Fix

Link Following

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-59

Related Identifiers

ALT-PU-2016-1079

BDU:2015-09687

CVE-2009-5079

Affected Products

Alt Linux

Groff

References · 19

• http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-5079 · Security Note
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2009-5079 · Vendor Advisory
• http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/08/14/5 · Patch
• https://errata.altlinux.org/ALT-PU-2016-1079 · Vendor Advisory
• https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2009-5079 · Vendor Advisory
• http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-5078 · Security Note
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2009-5079 · Security Note
• http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-5080 · Security Note
• http://mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2013:085 · Vendor Advisory
• http://cvsweb.openwall.com/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/Owl/packages/groff/groff-1.20.1-owl-tmp.diff · Patch
• http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-5081 · Security Note
• https://bdu.fstec.ru/vul/2015-09687 · Security Note
• http://mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2013:086 · Vendor Advisory
• http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-5044 · Security Note
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2009-5079 · Vendor Advisory