A vulnerability in the chmod utility of uutils coreutils allows users to bypass the --preserve-root safety mechanism. The implementation only validates if the target path is literally / and does not canonicalize the path. An attacker or accidental user can use path variants such as /../ or symbolic links to execute destructive recursive operations (e.g., chmod -R 000) on the entire root filesystem, leading to system-wide permission loss and potential complete system breakdown.
CVSS Details
- CVSS 3.1 Base Score: 7.3
- CVSS 3.1 Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)
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