Medium [CVE-2024-5742] Nano: running `chmod` and `chown` on the filename allows malicious user to replace the emergency file with a malicious symlink to a root-owned file
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2024-5742 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
Aggregated and source-linked by VulniPulse. Data sources, validation and limitations.
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Summary
A vulnerability was found in GNU Nano that allows a possible privilege escalation through an insecure temporary file. If Nano is killed while editing, a file it saves to an emergency file with the permissions of the running user provides a window of opportunity for attackers to escalate privileges through a malicious symlink.
For an attack to be successful, an attacker must be able to kill the Nano session of another user, hence this issue was rated as a Low severity issue. Red Hat severity: Low — CVSS 6.7 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).
Weakness: CWE-59. Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.
Will not fix / out of support: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat fixing advisory: RHSA-2024:6986, RHSA-2024:9430.
Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat package: nano.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 7 hours ago·verify at source
- nano-0:2.9.8-3.el8_10
- nano-0:5.6.1-6.el9
- RHSA-2024:6986
- RHSA-2024:9430
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 7 hours ago·verify at source
Mitigation
Upgrade to a fixed release: nano-0:2.9.8-3.el8_10, nano-0:5.6.1-6.el9, RHSA-2024:6986, RHSA-2024:9430. That is the remediation for this advisory.
The vendor advisory may list additional interim mitigations or workarounds not captured here — review it before change work.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 7 hours ago·verify at source
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