CVE-2011-3151: SELinux initscript misuse of touch

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.9 v3.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2019-04-22 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-693

Description

The Ubuntu SELinux initscript before version 1:0.10 used touch to create a lockfile in a world-writable directory. If the OS kernel does not have symlink protections then an attacker can cause a zero byte file to be allocated on any writable filesystem.

Affected products

Canonical Selinux: before 1\:0.10 — fixed in 1\:0.10

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Canonical Selinux 1\:0.10. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://launchpadlibrarian.net/88098106/selinux_0.10~10.04.1.debdiff
https://launchpadlibrarian.net/88098106/selinux_0.10~10.04.1.debdiff

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