# CVE-2006-5298: Race condition in n/a

> Local attackers can exploit a race condition in Mutt to create temporary files with weak permissions, potentially leading to privilege escalation or data modification.

- **Severity:** Low 1.2 (`AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 16 Oct 2006
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2006-5298, GHSA-c2x8-j25c-mhfm

## What is CVE-2006-5298?

CVE-2006-5298 is a low-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 16 Oct 2006. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The mutt_adv_mktemp function in the Mutt mail client 1.5.12 and earlier does not properly verify that temporary files have been created with restricted permissions, which might allow local users to create files with weak permissions via a race condition between the mktemp and safe_fopen function calls.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2006-5298?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Mutt Mutt.

## How do I fix CVE-2006-5298?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2006-5298 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2006-5298 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2021-32055](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-32055/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2006-3242](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-3242/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2005-2642](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-2642/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2004-0078](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2004-0078/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2003-0299](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0299/): Integer overflow in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2006-5298 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2006-5298 is a low-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 16 Oct 2006. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2006-5298 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-5298/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-5298/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2006-5298
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2006-5298
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2006-5298

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-5298/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.