A vulnerability in the London Trust Media Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN Client v82 for Linux and macOS could allow an authenticated, local attacker to overwrite arbitrary files. The openvpn_launcher binary is setuid root. This binary supports the --log option, which accepts a path as an argument. This parameter is not sanitized, which allows a local unprivileged user to overwrite arbitrary files owned by any user on the system, including root. This creates a denial of service condition and possible data loss if leveraged by a malicious local user.
The product attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.
| Link | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://github.com/mirchr/security-research/blob/master/vulnerabilities/PIA/CVE-2019-12573.txt | third party advisory exploit |