120
Operating_System : Unix (Prevalence = Undetermined)
Common Consequences
Scope Impact Likelihood
Confidentiality
Integrity
Read Files or Directories
Modify Files or Directories
Potential Mitigations
Phase: Architecture and Design
Strategy = Separation of Privilege
Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software
system. Denying access to a file can prevent an attacker from replacing that file with a link to a
sensitive file. Ensure good compartmentalization in the system to provide protected areas that
can be trusted.
Observed Examples
Reference Description
CVE-2001-1494 Hard link attack, file overwrite; interesting because program checks against
soft links
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2001-1494
CVE-2002-0793 Hard link and possibly symbolic link following vulnerabilities in embedded
operating system allow local users to overwrite arbitrary files.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2002-0793
CVE-2003-0578 Server creates hard links and unlinks files as root, which allows local users to
gain privileges by deleting and overwriting arbitrary files.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2003-0578
CVE-1999-0783 Operating system allows local users to conduct a denial of service by creating
a hard link from a device special file to a file on an NFS file system.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-1999-0783
CVE-2004-1603 Web hosting manager follows hard links, which allows local users to read or
modify arbitrary files.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2004-1603
CVE-2004-1901 Package listing system allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a hard
link attack on the lockfiles.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2004-1901
CVE-2005-0342 The Finder in Mac OS X and earlier allows local users to overwrite arbitrary
files and gain privileges by creating a hard link from the .DS_Store file to an
arbitrary file.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2005-0342
CVE-2005-1111 Hard link race condition
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2005-1111
CVE-2021-21272 "Zip Slip" vulnerability in Go-based Open Container Initiative (OCI) registries
product allows writing arbitrary files outside intended directory via symbolic
links or hard links in a gzipped tarball.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-21272
BUGTRAQ:20030203
ASA-0001
OpenBSD chpass/chfn/chsh file content leak
https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2003/Feb/7
MemberOf Relationships
This MemberOf relationships table shows additional CWE Catgeories and Views that reference this
weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits
within the context of external information sources.
CWE Version 4.14
CWE-64: Windows Shortcut Following (.LNK)
CWE-64: Windows Shortcut Following (.LNK)