CVE-2006-4248
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedthttpd on Debian GNU/Linux, and possibly other distributions, allows local users to create or touch arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the start_thttpd temporary file.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidencethttpd contains a symlink vulnerability in its temporary file handling for the start_thttpd file. When creating or touching this temporary file, thttpd does not verify the file is not a symlink, allowing local unprivileged users to create or modify arbitrary files on the system by pre-positioning a symlink at the expected temporary file location.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 2.25bCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify thttpd installation and versionRun 'thttpd -v' or 'dpkg -l | grep thttpd' or 'rpm -qa | grep thttpd' to determine if thttpd is installed and its version numberAffected if The installed version is 2.25b
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Check thttpd process userRun 'ps aux | grep thttpd' to see what user the thttpd process runs as, or inspect the thttpd configuration file for a 'user' or 'www-data' directiveAffected if thttpd runs as the root user rather than an unprivileged user
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Locate the temporary file directoryExamine the thttpd configuration or init script for references to 'start_thttpd' temporary file path, commonly created in /var/tmp or /tmpAffected if thttpd creates a temporary file named 'start_thttpd' in a world-writable directory
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Inspect for existing symlinks at temp file locationCheck if a file or symlink already exists at the expected temporary file path (e.g., ls -la /var/tmp/start_thttpd)Affected if A symlink exists at the temporary file location pointing to a target file owned by root or another privileged location
A system is affected if it runs Acme Labs Thttpd version 2.25b and creates the start_thttpd temporary file in a directory with weak permissions where unprivileged users can pre-position symlinks.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataEnsure thttpd is not run as root and use safe temporary file creation methods (mkstemp with O_EXCL). Apply Debian security updates for this package. Restrict permissions on /var/tmp and similar directories to prevent pre-positioning of symlinks.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2006-4248 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2006-4248 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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