Description
A vulnerability in the tail utility of uutils coreutils allows for the exfiltration of sensitive file contents when using the --follow=name option. Unlike GNU tail, the uutils implementation continues to monitor a path after it has been replaced by a symbolic link, subsequently outputting the contents of the link's target. In environments where a privileged user (e.g., root) monitors a log directory, a local attacker with write access to that directory can replace a log file with a symlink to a sensitive system file (such as /etc/shadow), causing tail to disclose the contents of the sensitive file.
Problem types
CWE-367: Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) Race Condition
CWE-59: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')
Product status
Credits
Zellic
References
github.com/uutils/coreutils/issues/10328
github.com/uutils/coreutils/issues/10328