oddjob — security advisory
A race condition was found in the mkhomedir tool shipped with the oddjob package in versions before 0.34.5 and 0.34.6 wherein, during the home creation, mkhomedir copies the /etc/skel directory into the newly created home and changes its ownership to the home's user without properly checking the homedir path. This flaw allows an attacker to leverage this issue by creating a symlink point to a target folder, which then has its ownership transferred to the new home directory's unprivileged user.
- Products
- oddjob
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- 0.34.6-1
- CVEs
- CVE-2020-10737
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 12:28 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
A race condition was found in the mkhomedir tool shipped with the oddjob package in versions before 0.34.5 and 0.34.6 wherein, during the home creation, mkhomedir copies the /etc/skel directory into the newly created home and changes its ownership to the home's user without properly checking the homedir path. This flaw allows an attacker to leverage this issue by creating a symlink point to a target folder, which then has its ownership transferred to the new home directory's unprivileged user.
osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10737
oddjob
Fixed versions: 0.34.6-1
oddjob
Fixed versions: 0.34.6-1
oddjob
Fixed versions: 0.34.6-1
Complete source record
{
"id": "239e0944166649b11e7774d0083d3cfb7fd82bd70327f2f446eeb94faf89bccb",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10737",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10737",
"summary": "A race condition was found in the mkhomedir tool shipped with the oddjob package in versions before 0.34.5 and 0.34.6 wherein, during the home creation, mkhomedir copies the /etc/skel directory into the newly created home and changes its ownership to the home's user without properly checking the homedir path. This flaw allows an attacker to leverage this issue by creating a symlink point to a target folder, which then has its ownership transferred to the new home directory's unprivileged user.",
"evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10737",
"products": [
{
"name": {
"value": "oddjob",
"evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "0.34.6-1",
"evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
"value": "oddjob",
"evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "0.34.6-1",
"evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
"value": "oddjob",
"evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "0.34.6-1",
"evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
}
],
"severity": "medium",
"structured": {
"id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10737",
"aliases": [
"DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10737"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "0.34.6-1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "oddjob",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/oddjob?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
"ecosystem": "Debian:12"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10737.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "not yet assigned"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "0.34.6-1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "oddjob",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/oddjob?arch=source&distro=trixie",
"ecosystem": "Debian:13"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10737.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "not yet assigned"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "0.34.6-1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "oddjob",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/oddjob?arch=source&distro=forky",
"ecosystem": "Debian:14"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10737.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "not yet assigned"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-26T12:00:16.881663858Z",
"provider": "osv",
"upstream": [
"CVE-2020-10737"
],
"references": [
"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-10737"
]
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2020-10737",
"evidence": "/upstream"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 451055,
"published_at": "2020-05-27T01:15:09.23+00:00"
}