CVE-2023-33865 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability affecting RenderDoc, a popular graphics debugging tool, in versions prior to 1.27. The vulnerability stems from RenderDoc's reliance on the /tmp/RenderDoc directory without verifying the directory's ownership or permissions. This design flaw allows an attacker with local access to create a symbolic link (symlink) pointing /tmp/RenderDoc to an arbitrary location. When RenderDoc operates on this directory, it may inadvertently perform privileged operations on files or directories controlled by the attacker. This symlink attack can lead to unauthorized modification or replacement of critical files, resulting in full privilege escalation. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 reflects the high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, combined with low attack complexity and the requirement for only limited privileges and no user interaction. Although no exploits are currently known in the wild, the vulnerability is significant due to the common use of RenderDoc in development environments and the potential for attackers to leverage local access to gain administrative control. The weakness is categorized under CWE-59 (Improper Link Resolution Before File Access), emphasizing the importance of secure handling of temporary directories and symlinks. Mitigation primarily involves updating RenderDoc to version 1.27 or later, where this issue is addressed, and enforcing strict permissions and monitoring on the /tmp directory to prevent unauthorized symlink creation.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk, particularly for companies involved in software development, graphics rendering, and game development where RenderDoc is commonly used. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to escalate privileges from a limited user account to root or administrative levels, potentially leading to full system compromise. This could result in data breaches, unauthorized code execution, and disruption of critical development workflows. The impact extends to intellectual property theft, sabotage of development environments, and potential lateral movement within corporate networks. Given the high severity and the critical role of RenderDoc in debugging graphics applications, organizations relying on this tool must consider the risk to their confidentiality, integrity, and availability of systems. The lack of known exploits in the wild provides a window for proactive mitigation, but the vulnerability remains a high priority due to the ease of exploitation and potential damage.

1. Upgrade RenderDoc to version 1.27 or later as soon as the patch is available to eliminate the vulnerability. 2. Until patching is possible, restrict write permissions to the /tmp directory and specifically to /tmp/RenderDoc to trusted users only, preventing unauthorized symlink creation. 3. Implement monitoring and alerting for suspicious symlink creation or modification activities within /tmp, using file integrity monitoring tools. 4. Enforce the use of secure temporary directories with proper ownership and permissions, avoiding reliance on world-writable directories for sensitive operations. 5. Educate developers and system administrators about the risks of symlink attacks and secure handling of temporary files. 6. Consider running RenderDoc with the least privileges necessary and within isolated environments or containers to limit the impact of potential exploitation. 7. Regularly audit local user permissions and access controls to minimize the number of users who can perform local operations that might exploit this vulnerability.