CWE-61: UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following
Description
The product, when opening a file or directory, does not sufficiently account for when the file is a symbolic link that resolves to a target outside of the intended control sphere. This could allow an attacker to cause the product to operate on unauthorized files.
Submission Date :
July 19, 2006, midnight
Modification Date :
2023-06-29 00:00:00+00:00
Organization :
MITRE
Extended Description
A product that allows UNIX symbolic links (symlink) as part of paths whether in internal code or through user input can allow an attacker to spoof the symbolic link and traverse the file system to unintended locations or access arbitrary files. The symbolic link can permit an attacker to read/write/corrupt a file that they originally did not have permissions to access.
Related Weaknesses
This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined to give an overview of the different insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction.
CWE-59: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')
CWE-340: Generation of Predictable Numbers or Identifiers
CWE-362: Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')
CWE-386: Symbolic Name not Mapping to Correct Object
CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
Visit http://cwe.mitre.org/ for more details.