CVE-2008-4996

MEDIUM

Debian Initramfs-tools - Symlink Following

Title source: rule

Description

init in initramfs-tools 0.92f allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the /tmp/initramfs.debug temporary file. NOTE: the vendor disputes this vulnerability, stating that "init is [used in] a single-user context; there's no possibility that this is exploitable.

References (4)

[Issue Tracking] http://bugs.debian.org/496386

[Exploit] http://dev.gentoo.org/~rbu/security/debiantemp/initramfs-tools

[Issue Tracking] https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=235770

[Mailing List] http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2008/10/30/2

Scores

CVSS v3 5.5

EPSS 0.0011

EPSS Percentile 29.0%

Attack Vector LOCAL

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Classification

CWE

CWE-59

Status draft

Affected Products (1)

debian/initramfs-tools

Timeline

Published Nov 07, 2008

Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026