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Programmers frequently create temporary files in directories that are writable by everyone (examples are /tmp and /var/tmp on UNIX and C:\TEMP %TEMP% on Windows) and may be purged regularly (for example, every night or during reboot).

Temporary files are commonly used for auxiliary storage for data that does not need to, or otherwise cannot, reside in memory and also as a means of communicating with other processes by transferring data through the file system. For example, one process will create a temporary file in a shared directory with a well-known name or a temporary name that is communicated to collaborating processes. The file then can be used to share information among these collaborating processes.

This practice is a dangerous practice because a well-known file in a shared directory can be easily hijacked or manipulated by an attacker. Mitigation strategies include the following:

1. Use other low-level IPC (interprocess communication) mechanisms such as sockets or shared memory.
2. Use higher-level IPC mechanisms such as remote procedure calls.
3. Use a secure directory or a jail that can be accessed only by application instances (making sure ensuring that multiple instances of the application running on the same platform do not compete).

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The following table lists common temporary file functions and their respective conformance to these criteria:

Conformance of File Functions to Criteria for Temporary Files

* If the program terminates abnormally, this behavior is implementation-defined.

Securely creating temporary files is error prone and dependent on the version of the C runtime library used, the operating system, and the file system. Code that works for a locally mounted file system, for example, may be vulnerable when used with a remotely mounted file system. Moreover, none of these functions are without problems. The only secure solution is to not create temporary files in shared directories.

Unique and Unpredictable File Names

Privileged programs that create temporary files in world-writable directories can be exploited to overwrite protected system files. 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 system 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, a protected system file to which the symbolic link points can be overwritten when the program is executed [HP 2003]. Unprivileged programs can be similarly exploited to overwrite protected user files.

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 Secure Coding in C and C++, Chapter 8[Seacord 2013].)

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• Mandatory locking works only on local file systems and does not extend to network file systems (such as NFS or AFS).
• File systems must be mounted with support for mandatory locking, and this is disabled by default.
• Locking relies on the group ID bit that can be turned off by another process (thereby defeating the lock).

Removal before Termination

Removing temporary files when they are no longer required allows file names 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, temporary file cleaner utilities, which are invoked manually by a system administrator or periodically run by a daemon to sweep temporary directories and remove old files, are widely used. However, these utilities are themselves vulnerable to file-based exploits and often require the use of shared directories. During normal operation, it is the responsibility of the program to ensure that temporary files are removed either explicitly or through the use of library routines, such as tmpfile_s, which guarantee temporary file deletion upon program termination.

Noncompliant Code Example (fopen()/open() with tmpnam())

This noncompliant code example creates a file with a hard-coded file_name (presumably in a shared directory such as /tmp or C:\Temp):

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Because the name is hard coded and consequently neither unique nor unpredictable, an attacker need only replace a file with a symbolic link, and the target file referenced by the link is opened and truncated.

The following This noncompliant code example attempts to remedy the problem by generating the file name at runtime using tmpnam(). The C tmpnam() function generates a string that is a valid file name and that is not the same as the name of an existing file. 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. 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.

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The next noncompliant code example attempts to remedy the problem by using the POSIX open() function and providing a mechanism to indicate whether an existing file has been opened for writing or a new file has been created [Open Group 2004IEEE Std 1003.1:2013]. 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():

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Moreover, the open() function, as specified by the Open Group the Standard for Information Technology—Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX®), Base Specifications, Issue 6 [Open Group 20047 [IEEE Std 1003.1:2013], does not include support for shared or exclusive locks. However, BSD systems support two additional flags that allow you to obtain these locks:

• O_SHLOCK: Atomically obtain a shared lock.
• O_EXLOCK: Atomically obtain an exclusive lock.

Noncompliant Code Example (tmpnam_s()

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/open(), Annex K, POSIX)

The C Standard function The TR 24731-1 tmpnam_s() function generates a string that is a valid file name and that is not the same as the name of an existing file. It is almost identical to the tmpnam() function except for an added maxsize argument for the supplied buffer.

#define __STDC_WANT_LIB_EXT1__
#include <stdio.h>
 
void func(void) {
  char file_name[L_tmpnam_s];
  int fd;

  if (tmpnam_s(file_name, L_tmpnam_s) != 0) {
    /* Handle error */
  }

  /* A TOCTOU race condition exists here */
 
  fd = open(file_name, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_EXCL | O_TRUNC,
            0600);
  if (fd < 0) {
    /* Handle error */
  }
}

Nonnormative text in TR 24731-1 in the C Standard, subclause K.3.5.1.2 [ISO/IEC TR 24731-1:2007] 9899:2011], also recommends the following:

Implementations should take care in choosing the patterns used for names returned by tmpnam_s. For example, making a thread id part of the names avoids the race condition and possible conflict when multiple programs run simultaneously by the same user generate the same temporary file names.

If implemented, this reduces the space for unique names is reduced and increases the predictability of the resulting names is increased. In general, TR 24731-1 does  Annex K does not establish any criteria for the predictability of names. For example, the name generated by the tmpnam_s function from Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 consists of a program-generated file name and, after the first call to tmpnam_s(), a file extension of sequential numbers in base 32 (.1-.1vvvvvu).

Noncompliant Code Example (mktemp()/open(), POSIX)

The POSIX function mktemp() takes a given file name template and overwrites a portion of it to create a file name. The template may be any file name with some number of Xwith exactly six X's appended to it (for example, /tmp/temp.XXXXXX). The six trailing X's are replaced with the current process number and/or a unique letter combination. The number of unique file names mktemp() can return depends on the number of X's provided.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
 
void func(void) {
  char file_name[] = "tmp-XXXXXX";
  int fd;

  if (!mktemp(file_name)) {
    /* Handle error */
  }

  /* A TOCTOU race condition exists here */

  fd = open(file_name, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_EXCL | O_TRUNC,
            0600);
  if (fd < 0) {
    /* Handle error */
  }
}

The mktemp() function has been is marked "LEGACY" in the Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6 [Open Group 2004]. The manual page for mktemp() gives more detail:

Never use mktemp(). Some implementations follow BSD 4.3 and replace XXXXXX by the current process id and a single letter, so that at most 26 different names can be returned. Since on the one hand the names are easy to guess, and on the other hand there is a race between testing whether the name exists and opening the file, every use of mktemp() is a security risk. The race is avoided by mkstemp(3).

Noncompliant Code Example (tmpfile())

The C The 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.

It should be possible to open at least TMP_MAX temporary files during the lifetime of the program. (This limit may be shared with tmpnam().) Subclause 7.21.4.4, paragraph 6, of the C Standard allows for the value of the macro TMP_MAX to be as small as 25.

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#include <stdio.h>
 
void func(void) {
  FILE *fp = tmpfile();
  if (fp == NULL) {
    /* Handle error */
  }
}

Noncompliant Code Example (tmpfile_s(),

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Annex K)

The The ISO/IEC TR 24731-1 function tmpfile_s()function creates a temporary binary file that is different from any other existing file and 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.

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It should be possible to open at least TMP_MAX_S temporary files during the lifetime of the program. (This limit may be shared with tmpnam_s().) The value of the macro TMP_MAX_S is required to be only 25 [ISO/IEC TR 24731-1:20079899:2011].

TR 24731-1 notes the The C Standard, subclause K3.5.1.2, paragraph 7, notes the following regarding the use of tmpfile_s() instead of tmpnam_s() [ISO/IEC TR 24731-1:20079899:2011]:

After a program obtains a file name using the the tmpnam_s function and before the program creates a file with that name, the possibility exists that someone else may create a file with that same name. To avoid this race condition, the the tmpfile_s function should be used instead of of tmpnam_s when possible. One situation that requires the use of the the tmpnam_s function is when the program needs to create a temporary directory rather than a temporary file.

#define __STDC_WANT_LIB_EXT1__
#include <stdio.h>
 
void func(void) {
  FILE *fp;
 
  if (tmpfile_s(&fp)) {
    /* Handle error */
  }
}

The TR24731-1 The tmpfile_s() function should not be used with implementations that create temporary files in a shared directory, such as /tmp or C:, because the function does not allow the user to specify a directory in which the temporary file should be created.

Compliant Solution (mkstemp(), POSIX)

The mkstemp() algorithm for selecting file names has shown to be immune to attacks. The mkstemp() function is available on systems that support the Open Group Base Specifications Issue 4, version 2 or later.

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The Open Group Base Specification Issue 6 [Open Group 2004] does not specify the permissions the file is created with, so these are implementation-defined. However, Issue 7 (POSIX.1-2008) , IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition [IEEE Std 1003.1:2013] specifies them as S_IRUSR|S_IWUSR (0600) [Austin Group 2008].

This compliant solution invokes the user-defined function secure_dir() (such as the one defined in FIO15-C. Ensure that file operations are performed in a secure directory) to ensure the temporary file resides in a secure directory.

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, 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 changed the mk*temp() family to eliminate the PID process ID component of the file name and replace the entire field with base-62 encoded randomness. This raises the number of possible temporary files for the typical use of six X's significantly, meaning that even mktemp() with six X's is reasonably (probabilistically) secure against guessing except under frequent usage [Kennaway 2000].

Exceptions

FIO43FIO21-C-EX1: The TR24731-1 The Annex K tmpfile_s() function can be used if all the targeted implementations create temporary files in secure directories.

Risk Assessment

Insecure temporary file creation can lead to a program accessing unintended files and permission escalation on local systems.

The unlink() function doesn't follow symlinks and doesn't really have much of an affect on hard links. So, I guess your options for attacking something like that would be:
*SIGSTOP or SIGTSTP it before the unlink, maybe unlink it yourself and wait (a while) until something created something with the same name, or try to use that name somehow. Probably not that useful, but maybe in a specific attack it could work with a lot of effort.
*You could sorta do a symlink attack with an intermediate path component, for example, if it was /tmp/tmp2/ed.XXXXXX, you could rm tmp2 and then symlink it to /etc or something. It would then rm /etc/ed.XXXXXX, but that probably wouldn't buy you much.

John McDonald

Automated Detection

 Automated Detection

Related Vulnerabilities

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

Related Guidelines

Bibliography

Bibliography

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