Path traversal in GNU Patch

1) Path traversal

EUVDB-ID: #VU30583

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 6.5 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2015-1396

CWE-ID: CWE-22 - Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote non-authenticated attacker to manipulate data.

A Directory Traversal vulnerability exists in the GNU patch before 2.7.4. A remote attacker can write to arbitrary files via a symlink attack in a patch file. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2015-1196.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Patch: 2.7.0 - 2.7.3

External links

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2015/01/27/29
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/75358
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2651-1
http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1186764

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to send a specially crafted request to the affected application in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.