Joined: 13 Jun 2003
Location: Dresden, Germany
|Posted: Tue May 25, 2004 9:14 pm Post subject: [ GLSA 200405-20 ] Insecure Temporary File Creation In MySQL
|Gentoo Linux Security Advisory
Title: Insecure Temporary File Creation In MySQL (GLSA 200405-20)
Date: May 25, 2004
Two MySQL utilities create temporary files with hardcoded paths, allowing an attacker to use a symlink to trick MySQL into overwriting important data.
MySQL is a popular open-source multi-threaded, multi-user SQL database server.
Vulnerable: < 4.0.18-r2
Unaffected: >= 4.0.18-r2
Architectures: All supported architectures
The MySQL bug reporting utility (mysqlbug) creates a temporary file to log bug reports to. A malicious local user with write access to the /tmp directory could create a symbolic link of the name mysqlbug- N pointing to a protected file, such as /etc/passwd, such that when mysqlbug creates the N th log file, it would end up overwriting the target file. A similar vulnerability exists with the mysql_multi utility, which creates a temporary file called mysql_multi.log.
Since mysql_multi runs as root, a local attacker could use this to destroy any other users' data or corrupt and destroy system files.
One could modify both scripts to log to a directory that users do not have write permission to, such as /var/log/mysql/.
All users should upgrade to the latest stable version of MySQL.
|# emerge sync
# emerge -pv ">=dev-db/mysql-4.0.18-r2"
# emerge ">=dev-db/mysql-4.0.18-r2"
Last edited by GLSA on Sun May 07, 2006 4:51 pm; edited 1 time in total