CVE-2014-9512

Published: 12 February 2015

rsync 3.1.1 allows remote attackers to write to arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a file in the synchronization path.

Status

Notes

rsync 3.1.1 introduced invalid filename filtering to prevent
malicious servers from sending files outside of the specified
directory:
https://git.samba.org/?p=rsync.git;a=commit;h=4cad402ea8a91031f86c53961d78bb7f4f174790

CVE-2014-9512 is about malicious servers being able to bypass
that filtering by changing paths.

This is a security hardening feature that was added in 3.1.1.
Either the whole feature needs to be backported to versions
earlier than 3.1.1, or this issue doesn't apply to them.

a second commit was later added:
https://git.samba.org/rsync.git/?p=rsync.git;a=commit;h=e12a6c087ca1eecdb8eae5977be239c24f4dd3d9
packages in vivid+ claim that this CVE is fixed, but are missing
the second commit

References

• https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2014-9512
• http://xteam.baidu.com/?p=169
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-2879-1
• NVD
• Launchpad
• Debian

Bugs

• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rsync/+bug/1531061
• https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10977
• https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=778333
• https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=915410