CVE-2018-10361
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered in KTextEditor 5.34.0 through 5.45.0. Insecure handling of temporary files in the KTextEditor's kauth_ktexteditor_helper service (as utilized in the Kate text editor) can allow other unprivileged users on the local system to gain root privileges. The attack occurs when one user (who has an unprivileged account but is also able to authenticate as root) writes a text file using Kate into a directory owned by a another unprivileged user. The latter unprivileged user conducts a symlink attack to achieve privilege escalation.
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 confidenceKTextEditor's kauth_ktexteditor_helper service insecurely handles temporary files when a user writes text using Kate into a directory owned by another unprivileged user. An unprivileged attacker who also has root authentication capability can exploit this via a symlink attack to escalate privileges to root.
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>= 5.34.0, <= 5.45.0CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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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Determine installed KTextEditor versionRun 'kate --version' or query your package manager (e.g., 'dpkg -l libktexteditor-data' on Debian-based systems, 'rpm -qi ktexteditor' on RPM-based systems)Affected if The installed version falls within >= 5.34.0 and <= 5.45.0
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Identify if Kate is writing to directories owned by other usersReview your workflow and file locations: check if you use Kate to edit files in directories owned by other unprivileged users (ls -la /path/to/directory)Affected if You edit files with Kate in directories owned by other non-root users
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Verify the kauth_ktexteditor_helper service presenceCheck for the existence of the helper binary at typical locations such as /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/kauth/ktexteditor_helper or within your system's lib/kauth directoryAffected if The ktexteditor_helper binary exists and is executable by your user account
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Confirm directory ownership scenarioUse 'ls -ld' on directories where you edit files with Kate; compare directory owner with your current user (whoami)Affected if You edit files in directories owned by a different unprivileged user (not root, not yourself)
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Check for symlink vulnerabilities in temp file handlingInspect /tmp directory for any ktexteditor-related temporary files or directories created with predictable names; monitor for symlink-based attacks during Kate usageAffected if Temporary files created by Kate are in world-writable directories and retain predictable names
You are affected if KTextEditor version is between 5.34.0 and 5.45.0 inclusive AND you use Kate to edit files in directories owned by other unprivileged users.
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 dataUpdate KTextEditor to a version beyond 5.45.0. Restrict or audit use of the kauth_ktexteditor_helper service, and avoid writing Kate files into directories owned by other users until patched.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-10361 — 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-2018-10361 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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