Dangerous temp file creation during installation of Netscape 6.

From: Larry W. Cashdollar (lwcat_private)
Date: Mon Aug 27 2001 - 10:55:27 PDT

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    During installation of Netscape 6.01a for Solaris 2.7/8 Sparc, I noticed
    the file /tmp/admin.3842 was created with mode 644.  As you already know
    if this package is installed by root in multiuser mode a malicious user
    could use this to overwrite system files etc..
    
    Here is the dangerous code: 
    
    # grep tmp ns6install
    cat >/tmp/admin.$$ <<EOF
                            /usr/sbin/pkgrm -n -a /tmp/admin.$$ ${pkg}.* 2>&1
            /usr/sbin/pkgadd -n -a /tmp/admin.$$ -d `pwd` $pkg 2>&1
    # 
    
    
    A temporary work around would be to shut the system down into single user
    mode, clean out /tmp and then install.
    
    In reference too:
    
    http://www.sun.com/solaris/netscape/index.html
    
    
    -- Larry
       http://vapid.dhs.org:8080
    



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