CVE-2026-35342 PUBLISHED

uutils coreutils mktemp Insecure Temporary File Placement via Empty TMPDIR

Assigner: canonical
Reserved: 02.04.2026 Published: 22.04.2026 Updated: 22.04.2026

The mktemp utility in uutils coreutils fails to properly handle an empty TMPDIR environment variable. Unlike GNU mktemp, which falls back to /tmp when TMPDIR is an empty string, the uutils implementation treats the empty string as a valid path. This causes temporary files to be created in the current working directory (CWD) instead of the intended secure temporary directory. If the CWD is more permissive or accessible to other users than /tmp, it may lead to unintended information disclosure or unauthorized access to temporary data.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
CVSS Score: 3.3

Product Status

Vendor Uutils
Product coreutils
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0 to 0.6.0 (excl.)

Credits

  • Zellic finder

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-377: Insecure Temporary File CWE

Impacts

  • CAPEC-117: Interception