Texinfo: Insecure temporary file creation Texinfo is vulnerable to symlink attacks, potentially allowing a local user to overwrite arbitrary files. Texinfo October 05, 2005 October 05, 2005: 01 106105 local 4.8-r1 4.8-r1

Texinfo is the official documentation system created by the GNU project.

Frank Lichtenheld has discovered that the "sort_offline()" function in texindex insecurely creates temporary files with predictable filenames.

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

There is no known workaround at this time.

All Texinfo users should upgrade to the latest version:

# emerge --sync # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-apps/texinfo-4.8-r1" CAN-2005-3011 koon formula7 koon