NTFS-3G: Privilege escalation

Background

NTFS-3G is a stable, full-featured, read-write NTFS driver for various operating systems.

Description

The NTFS-3G driver does not properly clear environment variables before invoking mount or umount.

This flaw is similar to the vulnerability described in “GLSA-201701-19” and “GLSA-201603-04” referenced below but is now implemented in the NTFS-3G driver itself.

Impact

A local user could gain root privileges.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time. However, on Gentoo when the “suid” USE flag is not set (which is the default) an attacker cannot exploit the flaw.

Resolution

All NTFS-3G users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-fs/ntfs3g-2016.2.22-r2"