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LogrotateApplication · Gentoo

CVE-2011-1549

MEDIUM · 6.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2011-03-30
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
68/100
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
The default configuration of logrotate on Gentoo Linux uses root privileges to process files in directories that permit non-root write access, which allows local users to conduct symlink and hard link attacks by leveraging logrotate's lack of support for untrusted directories, as demonstrated by directories under /var/log/ for packages.

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

Logrotate on Gentoo Linux runs with root privileges and processes log files in directories that are writable by non-root users. This allows local attackers to place symlinks or hard links in these directories, causing logrotate to overwrite or create files with root privileges during log rotation.

MitigationConfigure logrotate to run as a non-privileged user via the 'su' directive, ensure log directories are not writable by non-root users, and avoid processing logs in untrusted directories.

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
LogrotateApplication
Affected:all versions

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
None
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/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. Verify logrotate is installed and configured
    Check if logrotate package is installed (e.g., `equery list logrotate` or `ls /etc/logrotate.conf`)
    Affected if logrotate is installed and has a configuration file at /etc/logrotate.conf
  2. Check if logrotate uses the 'su' directive
    Examine /etc/logrotate.conf and files in /etc/logrotate.d/ for the 'su' directive (e.g., 'su root logadm')
    Affected if the 'su' directive is NOT present, meaning logrotate runs as root by default
  3. Identify directories where logrotate processes logs
    Review logrotate configuration files to find all paths specified for log rotation (look for lines starting with '/')
    Affected if logrotate is configured to process logs in any directory
  4. Check if log directories are writable by non-root users
    For each log directory found in the configuration, run `ls -ld <directory>` and check group/other write permissions (look for 'w' in group or other columns)
    Affected if any log directory configured for rotation has write permission for non-root users (group or other has 'w' permission)
  5. Verify logrotate runs as root
    Check cron jobs or systemd timers that invoke logrotate (e.g., `ls /etc/cron.daily/logrotate` or `systemctl list-timers`)
    Affected if logrotate is invoked without the -c option pointing to a config with 'su' directive, implying it runs as root

If logrotate runs as root and processes logs in directories writable by non-root users, the system is vulnerable to CVE-2011-1549.

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

Configure logrotate to run as a non-privileged user via the 'su' directive, ensure log directories are not writable by non-root users, and avoid processing logs in untrusted directories.

Fix this in Logrotate Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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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-2011-1549 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
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