A security flaw was found in the way the Sleuth Kit (TSK), a collection of UNIX-based command line tools allowing to investigate a computer, performed management of '.' (dotfile) file system entry. An attacker could use this flaw to evade detection by forensic analysis (hide certain files not to be scanned) by renaming the file in question it to be '.' file system entry. The original reports speaks about this attack vector to be present when scanning FAT (File Allocation Table) file system. It is possible though, the flaw to be present on other file systems, which do not reserve usage of '.' entry for special purpose, too. References: [1] http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/12/01/2 [2] http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=1305739444.2355.35.camel%40zwerfkat&forum_name=sleuthkit-users [3] http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=20120503111900.GL18142%40hauptmenue&forum_name=sleuthkit-users [4] http://labs.bitdefender.com/2012/06/flame-the-story-of-leaked-data-carried-by-human-vector/ [5] http://blog.crysys.hu/2012/06/flame-usb-dot-file-confirmed/ [6] http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/12/04/2 Upstream bug report: [7] http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3523019&group_id=55685&atid=477889 Upstream patch: OSS-security post [1] mentions no upstream patch to correct this issue to be available yet / so far.
This issue affects the versions of the sleuthkit package, as shipped with Fedora release of 16 and 17. Please schedule an update (once there is final upstream patch available).
Created sleuthkit tracking bugs for this issue Affects: fedora-all [bug 883333]
sleuthkit-4.0.1-1.fc18 has been pushed to the Fedora 18 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
sleuthkit-4.0.1-1.fc17 has been pushed to the Fedora 17 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.