GNU gzip contains a vulnerability in the gzexe utility related to insecure temporary file handling. When the mktemp utility is not available in the user’s PATH, gzexe falls back to constructing a temporary file path based solely on the process ID (PID). This predictable filename is created without exclusive access or existence checks. A local attacker can pre‑create the predicted temporary file path as a symbolic link pointing to an arbitrary file writable by the victim. When gzexe runs, it follows the symlink and overwrites the target file, resulting in a time‑of‑check to time‑of‑use (TOCTOU) condition that allows arbitrary file overwrite.
This issue has been fixed in the commit 4e6f8b24ab823146ab8776f0b7fe486ab34d4269
CVSS Details
- CVSS 4.0 Base Score: 2 (LOW)
- CVSS 4.0 Vector: (CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X)
- CVSS 3.1 Base Score: 4.7
- CVSS 3.1 Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N)
Covered by Rapid7
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian | — | Upgrade gzip | Sep 21, 2026 | Jun 29, 2026 |
| Redhat_linux | — | No solution existsUpgrade gzipUpgrade gzip-debuginfoUpgrade gzip-debugsource | Jul 17, 2026 | Jun 29, 2026 |
| Rocky_linux | — | Upgrade gzip-debugsourceUpgrade gzip-debuginfoUpgrade gzip | Sep 2, 2026 | Sep 1, 2026 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade gzipUpgrade gzip (Ubuntu Pro) | Jul 6, 2026 | Jun 29, 2026 |
| Vmware Photon_os | — | Use 'tdnf update' to upgrade all packages to the latest version. | Sep 2, 2026 | Jun 29, 2026 |
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