Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian
CVE-2011-1408
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 · uneditedikiwiki before 3.20110608 allows remote attackers to hijack root's tty and run symlink attacks.
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 · moderate confidenceikiwiki before version 3.20110608 contains a vulnerability allowing remote attackers to hijack root's tty (terminal) and conduct symlink attacks, likely through a race condition enabling arbitrary file creation or modification with elevated privileges.
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< 3.20110608CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/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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Check if ikiwiki is installedRun command: dpkg -l ikiwiki or rpm -q ikiwiki depending on your package managerAffected if ikiwiki is not installed means not affected
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Determine installed ikiwiki versionRun command: ikiwiki --version or dpkg -l | grep ikiwikiAffected if Version is lower than 3.20110608 (e.g., 3.20110215, 3.0 etc.)
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Check if running as root or with sudo privilegesRun: whoami and id commandsAffected if ikiwiki processes run as root and the vulnerable race condition can be exploited for privilege escalation
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Identify ikiwiki CGI/web interface configurationCheck for presence of ikiwiki CGI script in web server directories (e.g., /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ikiwiki.cgi or /var/www/cgi-bin/ikiwiki.cgi)Affected if CGI interface is enabled and accessible, allowing remote attackers to trigger the race condition
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Check for world-writable directories used by ikiwikiInspect ikiwiki setup file and look for directories with write permissions for www-data or other non-root users (e.g., find /var/lib/ikiwiki -perm -002)Affected if Writable directories exist that could be exploited for symlink attacks during the race condition
Environment is affected if ikiwiki version is installed and is less than 3.20110608, especially if the CGI/web interface is enabled with writable directories that could trigger the race condition for tty hijacking and symlink attacks.
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 data3.20110608
Upgrade ikiwiki to version 3.20110608 or later to remediate this vulnerability.
Fix this in Debian Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,840.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-1408 — 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-2011-1408 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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