abrt-action-install-debuginfo in Automatic Bug Reporting Tool (ABRT) 2.0.9 and earlier allows local users to set world-writable permissions for arbitrary files and possibly gain privileges via a symlink attack on "the directories used to store information about crashes."

The remote Oracle Linux 6 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2013-0215 advisory.

    abrt     [2.0.8-6.0.1.el6_3.2]
    - Add abrt-oracle-enterprise.patch to be product neutral
    - Remove abrt-plugin-rhtsupport dependency for cli and desktop
    - Make abrt Obsoletes/Provides abrt-plugin-rhtsupprot

    [2.0.8-6.2]
    - rebuild against new libreport (brew bug)
    - Related: #895442

    [2.0.8-6.1]
    - don't follow symlinks
    - Related: #895442

    libreport     [2.0.9-5.0.1.el6_3.2]
    - Add oracle-enterprise.patch
    - Remove libreport-plugin-rhtsupport pkg

    [2.0.9-5.2]
    - in same cases we have to follow symlinks
    - Related: #895442

    [2.0.9-5.1]
    - don't follow symlinks
    - Resolves: #895442

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

It was found that the /usr/libexec/abrt-action-install-debuginfo-to-abrt-cache tool did not sufficiently sanitize its environment variables. This could lead to Python modules being loaded and run from non-standard directories (such as /tmp/). A local attacker could use this flaw to escalate their privileges to that of the abrt user. (CVE-2012-5659)

A race condition was found in the way ABRT handled the directories used to store information about crashes. A local attacker with the privileges of the abrt user could use this flaw to perform a symbolic link attack, possibly allowing them to escalate their privileges to root. (CVE-2012-5660)

Updated abrt and libreport packages that fix two security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

ABRT (Automatic Bug Reporting Tool) is a tool to help users to detect defects in applications and to create a bug report with all the information needed by a maintainer to fix it. It uses a plug-in system to extend its functionality. libreport provides an API for reporting different problems in applications to different bug targets, such as Bugzilla, FTP, and Trac.

It was found that the /usr/libexec/abrt-action-install-debuginfo-to-abrt-cache tool did not sufficiently sanitize its environment variables. This could lead to Python modules being loaded and run from non-standard directories (such as /tmp/). A local attacker could use this flaw to escalate their privileges to that of the abrt user. (CVE-2012-5659)

A race condition was found in the way ABRT handled the directories used to store information about crashes. A local attacker with the privileges of the abrt user could use this flaw to perform a symbolic link attack, possibly allowing them to escalate their privileges to root. (CVE-2012-5660)

Red Hat would like to thank Martin Carpenter of Citco for reporting the CVE-2012-5660 issue. CVE-2012-5659 was discovered by Miloslav Trmac of Red Hat.

All users of abrt and libreport are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which correct these issues.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
68719	Oracle Linux 6 : abrt / and / libreport (ELSA-2013-0215)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	critical
64423	Scientific Linux Security Update : abrt and libreport on SL6.x i386/x86_64 (20130131)	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	medium
64389	RHEL 6 : abrt and libreport (RHSA-2013:0215)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
64382	CentOS 6 : abrt / libreport (CESA-2013:0215)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2012-5660

high

Tenable Plugins

critical

medium

medium

medium