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MuttprintApplication · Lukas Ruf

CVE-2008-5368

MEDIUM · 6.9 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-12-08
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
74/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
muttprint in muttprint 0.72d allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the /tmp/muttprint.log 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 confidence

muttprint 0.72d creates a temporary log file at /tmp/muttprint.log without proper security checks, allowing a local user to pre-create a symlink at that path that points to an arbitrary target file. When muttprint runs with elevated privileges, it follows the symlink and writes to the attacker-specified file, enabling arbitrary file overwrite.

MitigationReplace insecure temporary file creation with secure methods such as mkstemp() or File::Temp (for Perl), ensuring O_EXCL flag is used and the file is created in a safe directory with proper permissions.

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
MuttprintApplication
Affected:= 0.72d

CVSS 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
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:M/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check if muttprint is installed
    Run 'muttprint -V' or check your package manager for the muttprint package
    Affected if If muttprint is installed on the system
  2. Verify muttprint version is 0.72d
    Run 'muttprint -V' and compare the reported version to 0.72d
    Affected if If the installed version is exactly 0.72d
  3. Inspect /tmp/muttprint.log for symlink attack
    Run 'ls -la /tmp/muttprint.log' to check if the file exists and whether it is a symlink
    Affected if If /tmp/muttprint.log is a symlink pointing to a file you did not create
  4. Determine if muttprint runs with elevated privileges
    Check the file permissions and ownership of the muttprint binary (ls -la $(which muttprint)) and look for setuid/setgid bits, or check if it is invoked via sudo/root
    Affected if If muttprint runs with root or elevated privileges (has setuid bit set or runs as root)

You are affected if muttprint version 0.72d is installed, /tmp/muttprint.log can be replaced with a symlink, and muttprint runs with elevated privileges allowing arbitrary file overwrite.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Replace insecure temporary file creation with secure methods such as mkstemp() or File::Temp (for Perl), ensuring O_EXCL flag is used and the file is created in a safe directory with proper permissions.

Fix this in Muttprint Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2008-5368 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data