Vulnerabilities
Misconfiguration
Compliance
CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2014-3422

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

Published: May 08, 2014 | Modified: Apr 12, 2025
CVSS 3.x
N/A
Source:
NVD
CVSS 2.x
3.3 LOW
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P
RedHat/V2
2.1 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu
MEDIUM
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Additional information
NVDhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-3422
CWEhttps://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/59.html

lisp/emacs-lisp/find-gc.el in GNU Emacs 24.3 and earlier allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a temporary file under /tmp/esrc/.

Weakness

The product attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.

Affected Software

NameVendorStart VersionEnd Version
EmacsGnu*24.3 (including)
EmacsGnu20.0 (including)20.0 (including)
EmacsGnu20.1 (including)20.1 (including)
EmacsGnu20.2 (including)20.2 (including)
EmacsGnu20.3 (including)20.3 (including)
EmacsGnu20.4 (including)20.4 (including)
EmacsGnu20.5 (including)20.5 (including)
EmacsGnu20.6 (including)20.6 (including)
EmacsGnu20.7 (including)20.7 (including)
EmacsGnu21 (including)21 (including)
EmacsGnu21.1 (including)21.1 (including)
EmacsGnu21.2 (including)21.2 (including)
EmacsGnu21.2.1 (including)21.2.1 (including)
EmacsGnu21.3 (including)21.3 (including)
EmacsGnu21.3.1 (including)21.3.1 (including)
EmacsGnu21.4 (including)21.4 (including)
EmacsGnu22.1 (including)22.1 (including)
EmacsGnu22.2 (including)22.2 (including)
EmacsGnu22.3 (including)22.3 (including)
EmacsGnu23.1 (including)23.1 (including)
EmacsGnu23.2 (including)23.2 (including)
EmacsGnu23.3 (including)23.3 (including)
EmacsGnu23.4 (including)23.4 (including)
EmacsGnu24.1 (including)24.1 (including)
EmacsGnu24.2 (including)24.2 (including)
Emacs-snapshotUbuntulucid*
Emacs22Ubuntulucid*
Emacs23Ubuntulucid*
Emacs23Ubuntuprecise*
Emacs23Ubuntuquantal*
Emacs23Ubuntusaucy*
Emacs23Ubuntutrusty*
Emacs23Ubuntuutopic*
Emacs24Ubuntutrusty*
Emacs24Ubuntuupstream*
Xemacs21Ubuntulucid*

Potential Mitigations

  • Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
  • Denying access to a file can prevent an attacker from replacing that file with a link to a sensitive file. Ensure good compartmentalization in the system to provide protected areas that can be trusted.

References

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