A certain Red Hat script for sudo 1.7.2 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink…

published 2012-08-08 14 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2012-3407

cvss: 5.6; 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 38%
public exploits: 0; none known

A certain Red Hat script for sudo 1.7.2 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the /var/tmp/nsswitch.conf.bak temporary file.

Patch / fix

distros 1

sudo RHEL 5 1.7.2p1-14.el5_8.2

red hat advisories RHSA-2012:1149

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-2012-3440 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 5.6

sudo: insecure temporary file use in RPM %postun script

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) sudo 1.7.2p1-14.el5_8.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) sudo 1.7.2p1-14.el5_8.2
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1149
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 sudo Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 sudo
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

0.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 38% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

bugzilla.redhat.com https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=844442 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	2.0	5.6	AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:N/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness

CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2012-3440
NVD CVE-2012-3440

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.

Summary