CVE-2026-41991

Severity CVSS v4.0:

LOW

Type:

Unavailable / Other

Publication date:

29/06/2026

Last modified:

01/07/2026

Description

GNU gzip contains a vulnerability in the gzexe utility related to insecure temporary file handling. When the mktemp utility is not available in the user’s PATH, gzexe falls back to constructing a temporary file path based solely on the process ID (PID). This predictable filename is created without exclusive access or existence checks.<br /> A local attacker can pre‑create the predicted temporary file path as a symbolic link pointing to an arbitrary file writable by the victim. When gzexe runs, it follows the symlink and overwrites the target file, resulting in a time‑of‑check to time‑of‑use (TOCTOU) condition that allows arbitrary file overwrite.<br /> <br /> This issue has been fixed in the commit 4e6f8b24ab823146ab8776f0b7fe486ab34d4269

Impact

Vector 4.0

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N CVSS v4.0 Severity and Metrics:

Base Score: 2.00 LOW
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector (AV): Local
Attack Complexity (AC): High
Attack Requirements (AT): Present
Privileges Required (PR): None
User Interaction (UI): Passsive
Confidentiality (VC): None
Integrity (VI): Low
Availability (VA): None
Confidentiality (SC): None
Integrity (SI): None
Availability (SA): None

Base Score 4.0

2.00

Severity 4.0

LOW

Vector 3.x

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N CVSS v3.1 Severity and Metrics:

Base Score: 4.70 MEDIUM
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Attack Vector (AV): Local
Attack Complexity (AC): High
Privileges Required (PR): Low
User Interaction (UI): None
Scope (S): Unchanged
Confidentiality (C): None
Integrity (I): High
Availability (A): None