uutils coreutils versions before 0.10.0 apply setuid or setgid mode to install destinations before finalizing ownership changes, allowing privileged users to leave setuid executables owned by the privileged invoker when ownership changes fail. Attackers can execute leftover setuid files with elevated privileges when ownership change operations fail on capability-restricted systems.
A logic error in the ln utility of uutils coreutils causes the program to reject source paths containing non-UTF-8 filename bytes when using target-directory forms (e.g., ln SOURCE... DIRECTORY). While GNU ln treats filenames as raw bytes and creates the links correctly, the uutils implementation enforces UTF-8 encoding, resulting in a failure to stat the file and a non-zero exit code. In environments where automated scripts or system tasks process valid but non-UTF-8 filenames common on Unix filesystems, this divergence causes the utility to fail, leading to a local denial of service for those specific operations.