# CVE-2011-1548: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can escalate privileges via symlink attacks on logrotate due to root processing of untrusted directories in default Debian configurations.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.3 (`AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:C/A:C`)
- **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:** 30 Mar 2011
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2011-1548, GHSA-x7w4-r6vr-7hqw

## What is CVE-2011-1548?

CVE-2011-1548 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 30 Mar 2011. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The default configuration of logrotate on Debian GNU/Linux uses root privileges to process files in directories that permit non-root write access, which allows local users to conduct symlink and hard link attacks by leveraging logrotate's lack of support for untrusted directories, as demonstrated by /var/log/postgresql/.

Weakness: CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2011-1548?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Gentoo Logrotate.

## How do I fix CVE-2011-1548?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2011-1548 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-1548 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2011-1154](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-1154/): Command injection in n/a (medium 6.9)
- [CVE-2011-1549](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-1549/): Privilege escalation in n/a (medium 6.3)
- [CVE-2011-1550](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-1550/): Privilege escalation in n/a (medium 6.3)
- [CVE-2011-1098](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-1098/): Race condition in n/a (low 1.9)
- [CVE-2011-1155](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-1155/): Denial of service in n/a (low 1.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2011-1548 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2011-1548 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 30 Mar 2011. 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-2011-1548 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-2011-1548/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-1548/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2011-1548
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2011-1548
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2011-1548

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-1548/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.