CVE-2023-5936
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 · uneditedOn Unix systems (Linux, MacOS), Arc uses a temporary file with unsafe privileges. By tampering with such file, a malicious local user in the system may be able to trigger arbitrary code execution with root privileges.
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 confidenceOn Unix systems (Linux, macOS), Arc creates a temporary file with unsafe file permissions that can be tampered with by a local user. A malicious local user can exploit this to inject or replace content in the temp file, leading to arbitrary code execution with root privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/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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Locate the Arc binaryRun 'which arc' or check common installation paths such as /usr/bin/arc, /usr/local/bin/arc, or the current user's PATH.Affected if Arc binary is not found on the system - the software is not installed.
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Determine the installed versionRun 'arc --version' or 'arc -v' to obtain the version number.Affected if Unable to retrieve version - verify the correct binary is being used.
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Compare your version to affected releasesConsult the official vulnerability disclosure to obtain the list of affected version numbers and compare against your installed version.Affected if Your version falls within the affected version range listed in the CVE.
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Identify running processes or temp files created by ArcWhile Arc is running or immediately after execution, inspect /tmp or the default temp directory for files owned by root or the Arc process using 'ls -la /tmp | grep arc' or 'find /tmp -user root -name "*arc*"'.Affected if Temp files owned by root or the Arc process exist in world-writable directories.
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Verify temp file permissionsCheck the permission bits on any discovered temp files. Run 'ls -la' on the temp files and confirm whether other users have read or write access (permissions should be 0600 or stricter for owner-only).Affected if Temp files have permissions allowing group or world access (e.g., 0644, 0666) - this indicates the vulnerability is present.
If Arc is installed and runs with elevated privileges while creating temp files with permissions that allow other local users to read or modify those files, the environment is affected by this CVE.
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 dataReplace insecure temporary file creation with secure methods such as mkstemp(), tempfile module with restrictive permissions, or eliminate the need for temp files entirely. Ensure temp files are created with restrictive permissions (0o600) and are stored in secure directories.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-5936 — 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-2023-5936 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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