coreutils vulnerabilities

Heap-based Buffer Overflow in GNU coreutils

GNU coreutils unexpand is vulnerable to a heap-based buffer overflow due to an integer overflow during buffer allocation when processing large tab stop (-t) values. The multiplication used to calculate the allocation size can wrap around, resulting in an undersized buffer. When processing crafted input, subsequent writes exceed the allocated memory, leading to an out‑of‑bounds heap write. When running GNU coreutils unexpand with attacker-provided large tab stop (-t) arguments, this behavior leads to a crash and potentially achieve a heap write primitive depending on memory layout. This issue has been fixed in the commit b60a159fdc5

Out‑of‑bounds Read in GNU coreutils

GNU coreutils uniq is vulnerable to an out‑of‑bounds read due to incorrect handling of multibyte input when the -w (--check-chars) option is used. The find_field() function miscalculates the byte length of characters by repeatedly processing a fixed pointer instead of advancing through the input, resulting in an inflated length value. This incorrect length is later used in a memcmp operation, causing reads beyond the allocated buffer when processing crafted multibyte input. When running GNU coreutils uniq with attacker-provided arguments, this behavior leads to a crash and potential adjacent heap memory exposure. This issue has been fixed

Coreutils: heap buffer under-read in gnu coreutils sort via key specification

A flaw was found in GNU Coreutils. The sort utility's begfield() function is vulnerable to a heap buffer under-read. The program may access memory outside the allocated buffer if a user runs a crafted command using the traditional key format. A malicious input could lead to a crash or leak sensitive data.

CVE-2017-2616

A race condition was found in util-linux before 2.32.1 in the way su handled the management of child processes. A local authenticated attacker could use this flaw to kill other processes with root privileges under specific conditions.

• Update to 8.20-1

CVE-2017-18018

In GNU Coreutils through 8.29, chown-core.c in chown and chgrp does not prevent replacement of a plain file with a symlink during use of the POSIX "-R -L" options, which allows local users to modify the ownership of arbitrary files by leveraging a race condition.

CVE-2015-1865

fts.c in coreutils 8.4 allows local users to delete arbitrary files.

• Update to 8.13-1

CVE-2016-2781

chroot in GNU coreutils, when used with --userspec, allows local users to escape to the parent session via a crafted TIOCSTI ioctl call, which pushes characters to the terminal's input buffer.

CVE-2014-9471

The parse_datetime function in GNU coreutils allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted date string, as demonstrated by the "--date=TZ="123"345" @1" string to the touch or date command.

• Update to 8.23-1

CVE-2008-1946

The default configuration of su in /etc/pam.d/su in GNU coreutils 5.2.1 allows local users to gain the privileges of a (1) locked or (2) expired account by entering the account name on the command line, related to improper use of the pam_succeed_if.so module.

• Update to 5.93-1

CVE-2007-4998

cp, when running with an option to preserve symlinks on multiple OSes, allows local, user-assisted attackers to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack using crafted directories containing multiple source files that are copied to the same destination.

• Update to 4.1.2

CVE-2005-1039

Race condition in Core Utilities (coreutils) 5.2.1, when (1) mkdir, (2) mknod, or (3) mkfifo is running with the -m switch, allows local users to modify permissions of other files.

• Update to 6.10-1

CVE-2003-0854

ls in the fileutils or coreutils packages allows local users to consume a large amount of memory via a large -w value, which can be remotely exploited via applications that use ls, such as wu-ftpd.

• Update to 5.2.1-1

CVE-2003-0853

An integer overflow in ls in the fileutils or coreutils packages may allow local users to cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code via a large -w value, which could be remotely exploited via applications that use ls, such as wu-ftpd.

• Update to 5.2.1-1