CVE-2015-5700

mktexlsr revision 22855 through revision 36625 as packaged in texlive allows local users to write to arbitrary files via a symlink attack.

Published: 2017-08-25 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2015-5700 is rated Low Risk (36.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.42%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2015-5700

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.05% 0.42% +0.38%
2 2026-04-21 0.14% 0.05% -0.09%
3 2026-02-01 0.14%

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2015-5700

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.1 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
1.8 4.2 [email protected]
5.6 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:C/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
3.9 7.8 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2015-5700

OS Trackers for CVE-2015-5700

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2015-5700 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (texlive-bin), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2015-5700
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-5700
ubuntu low CVE-2015-5700 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (texlive-bin), 10 status rows across 10 suites (artful, bionic, precise, trusty, upstream, vivid, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 8, released 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2015-5700

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2015-5700

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
tug texlive 20100722 cpe:2.3:a:tug:texlive:20100722:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
tug texlive 20110705 cpe:2.3:a:tug:texlive:20110705:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
tug texlive 20120701 cpe:2.3:a:tug:texlive:20120701:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
tug texlive 20130530 cpe:2.3:a:tug:texlive:20130530:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
tug texlive 20140525 cpe:2.3:a:tug:texlive:20140525:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2015-5700

cvelogic Threat Intelligence