What is CVE-2004-1901?

CVE-2004-1901 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Gentoo Linux, classified under Improper Link Resolution Before File Access. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2004-12-31.

How severe is CVE-2004-1901?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Gentoo Linux

CVE-2004-1901

Portage before 2.0.50-r3 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a hard link attack on the lockfiles.

Published 2004-12-31 · last modified 2026-06-16.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (27.9th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 28th percentile — 27.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Gentoo Linux — versions 1.4
Gentoo Portage — versions 2.0.50

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-59 — Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

References

www.securityfocus.com/bid/10060 (Patch, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry, Broken Link)
security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200404-01.xml (vendor-advisory, Vendor Advisory)
secunia.com/advisories/11305 (Patch, Broken Link, third-party-advisory)
exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/15754 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2004-1901?: CVE-2004-1901 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Gentoo Linux, classified under Improper Link Resolution Before File Access. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2004-12-31.
How severe is CVE-2004-1901?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.