File Overwrite Vulnerability in MIT krb5-appl RCP Implementation

CVE-2019-25017

What is CVE-2019-25017?

A security flaw in the rcp implementation of MIT krb5-appl allows arbitrary file overwriting by a malicious rcp server or a Man-in-The-Middle attacker. The rcp client, which only performs minimal validation of the file names received, is vulnerable when it interacts with an untrusted server. This issue poses significant risks, especially during recursive operations, permitting unauthorized modifications in directories, potentially compromising sensitive files like .ssh/authorized_keys. The affected versions of MIT krb5-appl are included in various Linux distributions, despite being unsupported upstream.

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