Re: Acrobat reader 5.05 temp file insecurity

[psz () maths usyd edu au (Paul Szabo)]

Juan M. Courcoul <courcoul () campus qro itesm mx> wrote:

> Acrobat Reader 5.0.5 on MacOS X does not seem to have this problem. It 
> creates or overwrites the file
>
> /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts/AdobeFnt.lst
>
> with the same owner as the user and with group "admin", but with 644 
> file permissions. The directory does not have world-writeable permissions.

I am puzzled: how can a "simple" user create that file, when the directory
has no world-writable permissions? How can another user overwrite it, when
the file has 644 permissions? (It would seem that Juan was running as root;
"simple" users may still be vulnerable. I have no Mac to test.)

(See also http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/3225 .)

Cheers,

Paul Szabo - psz () maths usyd edu au  http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au:8000/u/psz/
School of Mathematics and Statistics  University of Sydney   2006  Australia