Race condition in Red Hat oddjob
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- High
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 fixed, 2 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
A race condition was found in the mkhomedir tool shipped with the oddjob package in versions before 0.34.5 and 0.34.6 wherein, during the home creation, mkhomedir copies the /etc/skel directory into the newly created home and changes its ownership to the home's user without properly checking the homedir path. This flaw allows an attacker to leverage this issue by creating a symlink point to a target folder, which then has its ownership transferred to the new home directory's unprivileged user.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
Red Hat 1 advisory
- RHSA-2020:4687 Released 2020-11-04 · Red Hat rating Moderateoddjob security, bug fix, and enhancement update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) oddjob-0.34.5-3.el8, oddjob-mkhomedir-0.34.5-3.el8
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) | Fixed | RHSA-2020:4687 |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2020-10737
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-m6xw-hhwx-7qjc
References
Sources
- CVE-2020-10737 · CVE Program
- CVE-2020-10737 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-m6xw-hhwx-7qjc · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2020-10737 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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