The mv utility in uutils coreutils fails to preserve file ownership during moves across different filesystem boundaries. The utility falls back to a copy-and-delete routine that creates the destination file using the caller's UID/GID rather than the source's metadata. This flaw breaks backups and migrations, causing files moved by a privileged user (e.g., root) to become root-owned unexpectedly, which can lead to information disclosure or restricted access for the intended owners.
A Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race condition exists in the mkfifo utility of uutils coreutils. The utility creates a FIFO and then performs a path-based chmod to set permissions. A local attacker with write access to the parent directory can swap the newly created FIFO for a symbolic link between these two operations. This redirects the chmod call to an arbitrary file, potentially enabling privilege escalation if the utility is run with elevated privileges.
The mkdir utility in uutils coreutils incorrectly applies permissions when using the -m flag by creating a directory with umask-derived permissions (typically 0755) before subsequently changing them to the requested mode via a separate chmod system call. In multi-user environments, this introduces a brief window where a directory intended to be private is accessible to other users, potentially leading to unauthorized data access.
A Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) vulnerability exists in the mv utility of uutils coreutils during cross-device moves. The extended attribute (xattr) preservation logic uses multiple path-based system calls that perform fresh path-to-inode lookups for each operation. A local attacker with write access to the directory can exploit this race to swap files between calls, causing the destination file to receive an inconsistent mix of security xattrs, such as SELinux labels or file capabilities.
The install utility in uutils coreutils is vulnerable to a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race condition during file installation. The implementation unlinks an existing destination file and then recreates it using a path-based operation without the O_EXCL flag. A local attacker can exploit the window between the unlink and the subsequent creation to swap the path with a symbolic link, allowing them to redirect privileged writes to overwrite arbitrary system files.
A vulnerability in uutils coreutils mkfifo allows for the unauthorized modification of permissions on existing files. When mkfifo fails to create a FIFO because a file already exists at the target path, it fails to terminate the operation for that path and continues to execute a follow-up set_permissions call. This results in the existing file's permissions being changed to the default mode (often 644 after umask), potentially exposing sensitive files such as SSH private keys to other users on the system.
The comm utility in uutils coreutils silently corrupts data by performing lossy UTF-8 conversion on all output lines. The implementation uses String::from_utf8_lossy(), which replaces invalid UTF-8 byte sequences with the Unicode replacement character (U+FFFD). This behavior differs from GNU comm, which processes raw bytes and preserves the original input. This results in corrupted output when the utility is used to compare binary files or files using non-UTF-8 legacy encodings.
The comm utility in uutils coreutils incorrectly consumes data from non-regular file inputs before performing comparison operations. The are_files_identical function opens and reads from both input paths to compare content without first verifying if the paths refer to regular files. If an input path is a FIFO or a pipe, this pre-read operation drains the stream, leading to silent data loss before the actual comparison logic is executed. Additionally, the utility may hang indefinitely if it attempts to pre-read from infinite streams like /dev/zero.
A vulnerability in the chmod utility of uutils coreutils allows users to bypass the --preserve-root safety mechanism. The implementation only validates if the target path is literally / and does not canonicalize the path. An attacker or accidental user can use path variants such as /../ or symbolic links to execute destructive recursive operations (e.g., chmod -R 000) on the entire root filesystem, leading to system-wide permission loss and potential complete system breakdown.
GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 12.4 before 18.9.6, 18.10 before 18.10.4, and 18.11 before 18.11.1 that could have allowed an authenticated user to cause denial of service by overwhelming system resources under certain conditions due to insufficient resource allocation limits in the GraphQL API.