CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2018-1063

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

Published: Mar 02, 2018 | Modified: Nov 21, 2024
CVSS 3.x
4.4
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
CVSS 2.x
3.3 LOW
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
3.9 LOW
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Ubuntu
LOW

Context relabeling of filesystems is vulnerable to symbolic link attack, allowing a local, unprivileged malicious entity to change the SELinux context of an arbitrary file to a context with few restrictions. This only happens when the relabeling process is done, usually when taking SELinux state from disabled to enable (permissive or enforcing). The issue was found in policycoreutils 2.5-11.

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

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Enterprise_linux Redhat 7.0 (including) 7.0 (including)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 RedHat policycoreutils-0:2.5-22.el7 *
Policycoreutils Ubuntu artful *
Policycoreutils Ubuntu esm-apps/xenial *
Policycoreutils Ubuntu esm-infra-legacy/trusty *
Policycoreutils Ubuntu trusty *
Policycoreutils Ubuntu trusty/esm *
Policycoreutils Ubuntu upstream *
Policycoreutils Ubuntu xenial *

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