CVE-2019-15790
Apport reads PID files with elevated privileges
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- canonical
Description
Apport reads and writes information on a crashed process to /proc/pid with elevated privileges. Apport then determines which user the crashed process belongs to by reading /proc/pid through get_pid_info() in data/apport. An unprivileged user could exploit this to read information about a privileged running process by exploiting PID recycling. This information could then be used to obtain ASLR offsets for a process with an existing memory corruption vulnerability. The initial fix introduced regressions in the Python Apport library due to a missing argument in Report.add_proc_environ in apport/report.py. It also caused an autopkgtest failure when reading /proc/pid and with Python 2 compatibility by reading /proc maps. The initial and subsequent regression fixes are in 2.20.11-0ubuntu16, 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.6, 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.12, 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.22 and 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm3.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| canonicalCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Low2.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Low3.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.52% · top 55% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Low 2.8.
Weakness
Affected products
References (11)
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/1839795 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-1/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-2/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-3/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-4/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-5/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/1850929 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/1851806 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/apport/+bug/1854237 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172858/Ubuntu-Apport-Whoopsie-DoS-Integer-Overflow.html (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2025/Jun/9 (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2019-15790)Record last updated .