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Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')

CVE-2019-19191

Severity High
Score 7.8/10

Summary

Shibboleth Service Provider (SP) 3.x before 3.1.0 shipped a spec file that calls chown on files in a directory controlled by the service user (the shibd account) after installation. This allows the user to escalate to root by pointing symlinks to files such as /etc/shadow.

  • LOW
  • LOCAL
  • HIGH
  • UNCHANGED
  • NONE
  • LOW
  • HIGH
  • HIGH

CWE-59 - Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

'Improper link resolution before file access' occurs when software accesses a file resource but fails to verify that the file isn't a link or shortcut to another file. An attacker can potentially gain access to arbitrary files and from there the impact can vary, depending on the application, from sensitive data exposure to remote code execution.

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published