Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian
CVE-2010-4817
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 · uneditedpithos before 0.3.5 allows overwrite of arbitrary files via symlinks.
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 confidencepithos before version 0.3.5 contains a symlink attack vulnerability that allows local attackers to overwrite arbitrary files on the system. The application follows symlinks during file operations without proper validation, enabling an attacker to create a symlink pointing to a target file and cause pithos to overwrite that file when processing the symlinked path.
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
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 8.0= 9.0= 10.0< 0.3.5CVSS 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
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
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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Verify pithos is installedRun 'which pithos' or 'dpkg -l | grep pithos' (Debian) to confirm pithos is present on the systemAffected if pithos is not found on the system, then this CVE does not apply
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Determine installed pithos versionRun 'pithos --version' or check the package version via 'dpkg -p pithos' (Debian) to retrieve the exact version numberAffected if version is less than 0.3.5 (e.g., 0.3.4, 0.3.3, etc.) or cannot be determined to be 0.3.5 or later
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Check if pithos processes files from user-controlled locationsInspect pithos configuration files (typically in ~/.config/pithos/ or /etc/pithos/) and review whether pithos is configured to access files from directories writable by other users or untrusted sourcesAffected if pithos is configured to process or sync files from shared/writable directories and the version is below 0.3.5
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Verify symlink handling behavior (if accessible)Create a test symlink in a pithos-monitored directory pointing to a non-pithos file, then trigger pithos file processing to observe if the symlink is followedAffected if pithos follows the symlink and modifies the target file, confirming the vulnerability is present
A system is affected if pithos is installed with a version prior to 0.3.5 and is used to process files from directories where untrusted local users could place 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 data0.3.5
Upgrade pithos to version 0.3.5 or later, which should contain proper symlink validation and prevent following untrusted symlinks during file operations.
Fix this in Debian Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2010-4817 — 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-2010-4817 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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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.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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