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Fencer Intel
medium 6.9

CVE-2011-0727 json

GNOME Display Manager (gdm) 2.x before 2.32.1 allows local users to change the ownership of arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a (1) d…

published 2011-03-31 15 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2011-0741

cvss
6.9
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 31%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

GNOME Display Manager (gdm) 2.x before 2.32.1 allows local users to change the ownership of arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a (1) dmrc or (2) face icon file under /var/cache/gdm/.

Patch / fix

  • gdm3 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.30.5-9

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2011-0727

  • gdm RHEL 6 1:2.30.4-21.el6_0.1
  • gdm-libs RHEL 6 1:2.30.4-21.el6_0.1
  • gdm-plugin-smartcard RHEL 6 1:2.30.4-21.el6_0.1
  • gdm-plugin-fingerprint RHEL 6 1:2.30.4-21.el6_0.1
  • gdm-user-switch-applet RHEL 6 1:2.30.4-21.el6_0.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2011:0395

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2011-0727 updated cvss 6.9

gdm: privilege escalation vulnerability

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) gdm 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-libs 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-plugin-smartcard 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-plugin-fingerprint 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-user-switch-applet 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) gdm 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-libs 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-plugin-smartcard 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-plugin-fingerprint 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-user-switch-applet 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) gdm 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-libs 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-plugin-smartcard 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-plugin-fingerprint 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-user-switch-applet 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) gdm 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-libs 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-plugin-smartcard 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-plugin-fingerprint 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1, gdm-user-switch-applet 2.30.4-21.el6_0.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0395
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 gdm Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 gdm
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.38% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 31% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 6.9 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.