CVE-2020-10737

Directory ownership takeover via symlink race

Published May 27, 2020 · Updated Aug 4, 2024

A race condition in Red Hat Oddjob before 0.34.5 and 0.34.6 allows local users to take ownership of privileged directories. The oddjob_selinux_mkdir function copies /etc/skel and changes home-directory ownership without verifying symlink expansion or user permissions. Exploitation requires high local privileges, user interaction, and winning the race; successful use transfers a target directory to an unprivileged account.

CVSS severity6.3
Medium
EPSS probability0.29%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

A race condition in Red Hat Oddjob before 0.34.5 and 0.34.6 allows local users to take ownership of privileged directories. The oddjob_selinux_mkdir function copies /etc/skel and changes home-directory ownership without verifying symlink expansion or user permissions. Exploitation requires high local privileges, user interaction, and winning the race; successful use transfers a target directory to an unprivileged account.

The record

CVE
CVE-2020-10737
Published
May 27, 2020
Updated
Aug 4, 2024
Vendor
Red Hat
Product
Oddjob
Classifications
CWE-362, T1222.002
Attack vector
local
Privileges
admin

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. May 27, 2020CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Aug 4, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=before 0.34.5
  2. Affected versionversion=before 0.34.6

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesadmin

What is affected?

Red Hat · Oddjobversion=before 0.34.5; version=before 0.34.6

Published CVSS scores

3.7NIST NVDAV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
6.3Red Hat, Inc.CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesadmin
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-362Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')
T1222.002Linux and Mac File and Directory Permissions Modification

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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