Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2021-20197

medium Nessus Plugin ID 223693

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- There is an open race window when writing output in the following utilities in GNU binutils version 2.35 and earlier:ar, objcopy, strip, ranlib. When these utilities are run as a privileged user (presumably as part of a script updating binaries across different users), an unprivileged user can trick these utilities into getting ownership of arbitrary files through a symlink. (CVE-2021-20197)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 223693

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2021_20197.nasl

Version: 1.2

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/4/2025

Updated: 8/30/2025

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.2

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Low

Base Score: 3.3

Temporal Score: 2.4

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-20197

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.3

Temporal Score: 5.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:binutils, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gcc-toolset-9-binutils, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gcc-toolset-10-binutils, cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:binutils, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gcc-toolset-9-binutils, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gcc-toolset-10-binutils, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:binutils, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:binutils, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8

Required KB Items: Host/OS/identifier, Host/cpu, Host/local_checks_enabled, global_settings/vendor_unpatched

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/28/2021

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-20197

Detections

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