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A f2c security update has been released for Gentoo Linux

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200501-43
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http://security.gentoo.org/
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Severity: Normal
Title: f2c: Insecure temporary file creation
Date: January 30, 2005
Bugs: #79725
ID: 200501-43

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Synopsis
=======

f2c is vulnerable to symlink attacks, potentially allowing a local user to overwrite arbitrary files.



Background
=========

f2c is a Fortran to C translator. Portage uses this package in some ebuilds to build Fortran sources.

Affected packages
================

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Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected
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1 dev-lang/f2c = 20030320-r1

Description
==========

Javier Fernandez-Sanguino Pena from the Debian Security Audit Team discovered that f2c creates temporary files in world-writeable directories with predictable names.

Impact
=====

A local attacker could create symbolic links in the temporary files directory, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the filesystem. When f2c is executed, this would result in the file being overwritten with the rights of the user running the software, which could be the root user.

Workaround
=========

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution
=========

All f2c users should upgrade to the latest version:

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-lang/f2c-20030320-r1"

References
=========

[ 1 ] CAN-2005-0017
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2005-0017

Availability
===========

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website:

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200501-43.xml

Concerns?
========

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at http://bugs.gentoo.org.

License
======

Copyright 2005 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text belongs to its owner(s).

The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0