KTextEditor up to 5.45.0 kauth_ktexteditor_helper Service access control

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as critical has been discovered in KTextEditor up to 5.45.0. This impacts an unknown function of the component kauth_ktexteditor_helper Service. Such manipulation leads to access control. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2018-10361. An attack has to be approached locally. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in KTextEditor up to 5.45.0 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is an unknown functionality of the component kauth_ktexteditor_helper Service. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a access control vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-264. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

An 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.

The bug was discovered 04/24/2018. The weakness was shared 04/25/2018 (Website). The advisory is shared for download at openwall.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2018-10361 since 04/24/2018. The attack needs to be approached locally. The successful exploitation needs a simple authentication. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1068.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 1 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $0-$5k.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Productinfo

Name

• KTextEditor

Version

• 5.0
• 5.1
• 5.2
• 5.3
• 5.4
• 5.5
• 5.6
• 5.7
• 5.8
• 5.9
• 5.10
• 5.11
• 5.12
• 5.13
• 5.14
• 5.15
• 5.16
• 5.17
• 5.18
• 5.19
• 5.20
• 5.21
• 5.22
• 5.23
• 5.24
• 5.25
• 5.26
• 5.27
• 5.28
• 5.29
• 5.30
• 5.31
• 5.32
• 5.33
• 5.34
• 5.35
• 5.36
• 5.37
• 5.38
• 5.39
• 5.40
• 5.41
• 5.42
• 5.43
• 5.44
• 5.45.0

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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