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CVE-2005-4784

MEDIUM

5.6

CVSS Severity Score

EPSS Score0.0260%

EPSS Percentile22.05th

PublishedDec 31, 2005

Last ModifiedApr 16, 2026

Vulnerability Description

Multiple buffer overflows in the POSIX readdir_r function, as used in multiple packages, allow local users to cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary code via (1) a symlink attack that exploits a race condition between opendir and pathcon calls and changes the filesystem to one with a larger maximum directory-entry name length, or (2) possibly via programmer-introduced errors on operating systems with a small struct dirent, such as Solaris or BeOS, as demonstrated in packages including (a) gcj, (b) KDE, (c) libwww, (d) the Rudiments library, (e) teTeX, (f) xmail, (g) bfbtester, (h) ncftp, (i) netwib, (j) OpenOffice.org, (k) Pike, (l) reprepro, (m) Tcl, and (n) xgsmlib.

Affected Platforms (CPE)

💻

Austin Group

Posix

All versions

References & Advisories

🔗 http://womble.decadentplace.org.uk/readdir_r-advisory.html

🔗 http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/415781

🔗 http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/415790/30/0/threaded

🔗 http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/415995/30/0/threaded

🔗 http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/415998/30/0/threaded

🔗 http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/415999/30/0/threaded

🔗 http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/416002/30/0/threaded

🔗 http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/416048/30/0/threaded

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