webapp-config: Insecure temporary file handling

Background

webapp-config is a Gentoo Linux utility to help manage the installation of web-based applications.

Description

Eric Romang discovered webapp-config uses a predictable temporary filename while processing certain options, resulting in a race condition.

Impact

Successful exploitation of the race condition would allow an attacker to disrupt the operation of webapp-config, or execute arbitrary shell commands with the privileges of the user running webapp-config. A local attacker could use a symlink attack to create or overwrite files with the permissions of the user running webapp-config.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All webapp-config users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=app-admin/webapp-config-1.11"