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GHSA-v24v-f45g-w7jf

Duplicate Advisory: uutils coreutils has a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race condition

Medium Withdrawn Jul 6, 2026 crates.io
Severity
6.3 / 10
Medium · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS)
—
No score published
Known exploited
No
Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness
CWE-367 Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition
Fix
0.6.0
Upgrade coreutils to this version or later

Description

Duplicate Advisory

This advisory has been withdrawn because it is a duplicate of GHSA-239g-2685-54x3. This link is maintained to preserve external references.

Original Description

The install utility in uutils coreutils is vulnerable to a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race condition during file installation. The implementation unlinks an existing destination file and then recreates it using a path-based operation without the O_EXCL flag. A local attacker can exploit the window between the unlink and the subsequent creation to swap the path with a symbolic link, allowing them to redirect privileged writes to overwrite arbitrary system files.

Affected versions

crates.io

PackageVulnerableFixed in
coreutils
< 0.6.0
0.6.0

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

coreutils crates.io → 0.6.0

cargo
cargo update -p coreutils --precise 0.6.0

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 6.3

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Weakness

CWE-367: Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition

The product checks the state of a resource before using that resource, but the resource's state can change between the check and the use in a way that invalidates the results of the check.

How to prevent it
  • Implementation: The most basic advice for TOCTOU vulnerabilities is to not perform a check before the use. This does not resolve the underlying issue of the execution of a function on a resource whose state and identity cannot be assured, but it does help to limit the false sense of security given by the check.
  • Implementation: When the file being altered is owned by the current user and group, set the effective gid and uid to that of the current user and group when executing this statement.
  • Architecture and Design: Limit the interleaving of operations on files from multiple processes.
  • Implementation, Architecture and Design: If you cannot perform operations atomically and you must share access to the resource between multiple processes or threads, then try to limit the amount of time (CPU cycles) between the check and use of the resource. This will not fix the problem, but it could make it more difficult for an attack to succeed.
  • Implementation: Recheck the resource after the use call to verify that the action was taken appropriately.
  • Architecture and Design: Ensure that some environmental locking mechanism can be used to protect resources effectively.
  • Implementation: Ensure that locking occurs before the check, as opposed to afterwards, such that the resource, as checked, is the same as it is when in use.

References

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Withdrawn
  3. Last updated by the source
AdvisorySeverityWhy it's related
GHSA-m2pg-c7m6-77pj
uutils coreutils has an Improper Input Validation Issue in its cut Utility
Medium Also affects coreutils
GHSA-fhr3-xh3q-69w6
uutils coreutils has an Incorrect Provision of Specified Functionality Issue
Low Also affects coreutils
GHSA-5pv5-xh52-hvrp
uutils coreutils has an Incorrect Short Circuit Evaluation Issue
Low Also affects coreutils
GHSA-5v4g-vw9x-h534
uutils coreutils has an Improper Input Validation Issue in its env Utility
Low Also affects coreutils
GHSA-6g8r-74qp-6859
uutils coreutils has a Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition
Medium Also affects coreutils
GHSA-vx9m-xjwf-8cqm
uutils coreutils has an Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding Issue
Low Also affects coreutils
GHSA-4wrp-79m8-9m9p
uutils coreutils has a Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition
Medium Also affects coreutils
GHSA-wq63-vh5h-pr5p
uutils coreutils has a UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following issue
Medium Also affects coreutils
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