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When working with temporary files inside of shared directories, it is important to simultaneously address 3 issues

1. Temporary files must be created with unique and unpredictable file names
2. Temporary files must be opened with exclusive access
3. Temporary files must removed before the program exits
   

Unique and Unpredictable file names

Programs that create files in shared directories may be exploited to overwrite protected files. For example, an attacker who can predict the name of a file created by a privileged program can create a symbolic link (with the same name as the file used by the program) to point to a protected file. Unless the privileged program is coded securely, the program will follow the symbolic link instead of opening or creating the file that it is supposed to be using. As a result, the protected file referenced by the symbolic link can be overwritten when the program is executed. To ensure that the name of the temporary file does not conflict with a preexisting file and that it cannot be guessed before the program is run, temporary files must be created with unique and unpredictable file names.

Exclusive Access

Exclusive access grants unrestricted file access to the locking process while denying access to all other processes and eliminates the potential for a race condition on the locked region (see \[[Seacord 05|AA. C References#Seacord 05]\] Chapter 7).

Files, or regions of files, can be locked to prevent two processes from concurrent access. Windows supports file locking of two types: shared locks prohibit all write access to the locked file region while allowing concurrent read access to all processes; exclusive locks grant unrestricted file access to the locking process while denying access to all other processes. A call to LockFile() obtains shared access; exclusive access is accomplished via LockFileEx(). In either case the lock is removed by calling UnlockFile().

Both shared locks and exclusive locks eliminate the potential for a race condition on the locked region. The exclusive lock is similar to a mutual exclusion solution, and the shared lock eliminates race conditions by removing the potential for altering the state of the locked file region (one of the required properties for a race).

These Windows file-locking mechanisms are called mandatory locks because every process attempting access to a locked file region is subject to the restriction. Linux implements both mandatory locks and advisory locks. An advisory lock is not enforced by the operating system, which severely diminishes its value from a security perspective. Unfortunately, the mandatory file lock in Linux is also largely impractical for the following reasons: (a) mandatory locking works only on local file systems and does not extend to network file systems (NFS and AFS), (b) file systems must be mounted with support for mandatory locking, and this is disabled by default, and (c) locking relies on the group ID bit that can be turned off by another process (thereby defeating the lock).

Removal before termination

It Whenever working with temporary files, it is important to remember to cleanup in order to allow filenames and other resources such as secondary storage to be recycled. In the case of abnormal termination, there is no sure method that can guarantee the removal of orphaned files. For this reason tmp cleaner utilities are widely used. These tmp cleaners are invoked manually by a system administrator or run as a cron daemon to sweep temporary directories and remove old files. These tmp cleaners are themselves vulnerable to file-based exploits, and often require the use of shared directories (see: TMP00-A. Do not create temporary files in shared directories). However, during normal operation, it is the responsibility of the program to ensure that temporary files are either removed explicitly, or through the use of library routines such as tmpfile_s which guarantee their removal upon program termination.

Non-Compliant Code Example: fopen()

The following non-compliant code creates some_file in the /tmp directory. The name is hard coded and consequently is neither unique nor unpredictable.

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To exploit this coding error, an attacker need only create a symbolic link called /tmp/some_file before execution of this statement.

Non-Compliant Code Example: open()

The {{fopen()}} function does not indicate whether an existing file has been opened for writing or a new file has been created. However, the {{open()}} function as defined in the Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6 \[[Open Group 04|AA. C References#Open Group 04]\] provides such a mechanism.  If the {{O_CREAT}} and {{O_EXCL}} flags are used together, the {{open()}} function fails when the file specified by {{file_name}} already exists. To prevent an existing file from being opened and truncated, include the flags {{O_CREAT}} and {{O_EXCL}} when calling {{open()}}.

...

Care should be observed when using {{O_EXCL}} with remote file systems, as it does not work with NFS version 2. NFS version 3 added support for {{O_EXCL}} mode in {{open()}}; see IETF RFC 1813 \[[Callaghan 95|AA. C References#Callaghan 95]\], in particular the {{EXCLUSIVE}} value to the {{mode}} argument of {{CREATE}}.

Non-Compliant Code Example: tmpnam()

The C99 {{tmpnam()}} function generates a string that is a valid filename and that is not the same as the name of an existing file \[[ISO/IEC 9899-1999|AA. C References#ISO/IEC 9899-1999]\]. Files created using strings generated by the {{tmpnam()}} function are temporary in that their names should not collide with those generated by conventional naming rules for the [implementation|BB. Definitions#implementation].  The function is potentially capable of generating {{TMP_MAX}} different strings, but any or all of them may already be in use by existing files.  If the argument is not a null pointer, it is assumed to point to an array of at least {{L_tmpnam}} chars; the {{tmpnam()}} function writes its result in that array and returns the argument as its value.

char filename[L_tmpnam];

if (tmpnam(filename)) {
  /* temp_file_name may refer to an existing file */
  t_file = fopen(filename,"wb+");
  if (!t_file) {
     /* Handle Error */
  }
}

Non-Compliant Code Example: tmpnam_s() (ISO/IEC TR 24731-1)

The TR 24731-1 {{tmpnam_s()}} function generates a string that is a valid filename and that is not the same as the name of an existing file \[[ISO/IEC TR 24731-1-2007|AA. C References#SO/IEC TR 24731-1-2007]\]. It is almost identical to the {{tmpnam}} function above except with an added {{maxsize}} argument for the supplied buffer.

...

char filename[L_tmpnam_s];

if (tmpnam_s(filename, L_tmpnam_s) != 0) {
  /* Handle Error */
}

/* A TOCTOU race condition exists here */

if (!fopen_s(&fp, filename, "wb+")) {
  /* Handle Error */
}

Implementation Details

For Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, the name generated by tmpnam_s consists of a program-generated filename and, after the first call to tmpnam_s(), a file extension of sequential numbers in base 32 (.1-.1vvvvvu, when TMP_MAX_S in stdio.h is INT_MAX).

Non-Compliant Code Example: mktemp()/open() (POSIX)

The POSIX function mktemp() takes a given filename template and overwrites a portion of it to create a filename. The template may be any filename with some number of Xs appended to it (for example, /tmp/temp.XXXXXX). The trailing Xs are replaced with the current process number and/or a unique letter combination. The number of unique filenames mktemp() can return depends on the number of Xs provided.

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The mktemp() function has been marked LEGACY in the Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6.

Non-Compliant Code Example: tmpfile()

The C99 tmpfile() function creates a temporary binary file that is different from any other existing file and that is automatically removed when it is closed or at program termination.

...

if ((fp = tmpfile()) == NULL) {
  /* Handle Error */
}

Compliant Solution: mkstemp() (POSIX)

A reasonably secure solution for generating random file names is to use the mkstemp() function. The mkstemp() function is available on systems that support the Open Group Base Specifications Issue 4, Version 2 or later.

...

The Open Group Base Specification Issue 6 \[[Open Group 04|AA. C References#Open Group 04]\] does not specify the permissions the file is created with, so these are [implementation-defined|BB. Definitions#implementation-defined behavior]. However, Issue 7 (that is, POSIX.1-2008) specifies them as {{S_IRUSR\|S_IWUSR}} (0600).

Implementation Details

For glibc versions 2.0.6 and earlier, the file is created with permissions 0666; for glibc versions 2.0.7 and later, the file is created with permissions 0600. On NetBSD, the file is created with permissions 0600.  This creates a security risk in that an attacker will have write access to the file immediately after creation. Consequently, programs need a private version of the mkstemp() function in which this issue is known to be fixed.

In many older [implementations|BB. Definitions#implementation], the name is a function of process ID and time, so it is possible for the attacker to predict the name and create a decoy in advance.  FreeBSD has recently changed the {{mk*temp()}} family to eliminate the PID component of the filename and replace the entire field with base-62 encoded randomness.  This raises the number of possible temporary files for the typical use of 6 Xs significantly, meaning that even {{mktemp()}} with 6 Xs is reasonably (probabilistically) secure against guessing, except under frequent usage \[[Kennaway 00|AA. C References#Kennaway 00]\] .

Compliant Solution: tmpfile_s() (ISO/IEC TR 24731-1 )

The ISO/IEC TR 24731-1 function tmpfile_s() creates a temporary binary file that is different from any other existing file and that is automatically removed when it is closed or at program termination. If the program terminates abnormally, whether an open temporary file is removed is implementation-defined.

...

if (tmpfile_s(&fp)) {
  /* Handle Error */
}

Risk Assessment

Failure to create unique, unpredictable temporary file names can make it possible for an attacker to access or modify privileged files.

Related Vulnerabilities

Search for vulnerabilities resulting from the violation of this rule on the CERT website.

References

\[[ISO/IEC 9899-1999|AA. C References#ISO/IEC 9899-1999]\] Sections 7.19.4.4, "The {{tmpnam}} function," 7.19.4.3, "The {{tmpfile}} function," and 7.19.5.3, "The {{fopen}} function"
\[[ISO/IEC PDTR 24772|AA. C References#ISO/IEC PDTR 24772]\] "EWR Path Traversal"
\[[ISO/IEC TR 24731-1-2007|AA. C References#ISO/IEC TR 24731-1-2007]\] Sections 6.5.1.2, "The {{tmpnam_s}} function," 6.5.1.1, "The {{tmpfile_s}} function," and 6.5.2.1, "The {{fopen_s}} function"
\[[Open Group 04|AA. C References#Open Group 04]\] [{{mktemp()}}|http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/000095399/functions/mktemp.html], [{{mkstemp()}}|http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/mkstemp.html], [{{open()}}|http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/open.html]
\[[Seacord 05a|AA. C References#Seacord 05a]\] Chapter 3, "File I/O"
\[[Wheeler 03|AA. C References#Wheeler 03]\] [Chapter 7, "Structure Program Internals and Approach"|http://www.dwheeler.com/secure-programs/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/avoid-race.html#TEMPORARY-FILES]
\[[Viega 03|AA. C References#Viega 03]\] Section 2.1, "Creating Files for Temporary Use"
\[[Kennaway 00|AA. C References#Kennaway 00]\]
\[[HP 03|AA. C References#HP 03]\]

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