Description

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

Severity (CVSS)

Base score2
SeverityLow
VersionCVSS 4.0
VectorCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Provided byCNA

Weaknesses

  • CWE-377 — CWE-377: Insecure Temporary File

Affected products

VendorProductVersions
GNUgzip0 to <=1.14

References

Authoritative sources

This page is a snapshot. For the latest enrichment and updates, view the record on CVE.org or the NVD.

Generated from the official CVE List on 30 Jun 2026 07:04 UTC.