Description
ipmievd (aka the IPMI event daemon) in OpenIPMI, as used in the ipmitool package 1.8.11 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6, Debian GNU/Linux, Fedora 16, and other products uses 0666 permissions for its ipmievd.pid PID file, which allows local users to kill arbitrary processes by writing to this file.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | ipmitool | 1.8.11-5 | — |
| Debian 13 | ipmitool | 1.8.11-5 | — |
| Debian 12 | ipmitool | 1.8.11-5 | — |
| Debian 6.0 | ipmitool | 1.8.11-2+squeeze2 | DSA-2376-1 |
| Debian 5.0 | ipmitool | 1.8.9-2+squeeze1 | DSA-2376-2 |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 6 | ipmitool | 1.8.11-12.el6_2.1 | RHSA-2011:1814 |
| RHEL 5 | OpenIPMI +6 | 2.0.16-16.el5 | RHSA-2013:0123 |
Advisories 4
- RHSA-2013:0123 Red Hat Security Advisory: OpenIPMI security, bug fix, and enhancement update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 26, 2026
- RHSA-2011:1814 Red Hat Security Advisory: ipmitool security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 26, 2026
- DSA-2376-1 ipmitool - insecure pid file Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
- DSA-2376-2 ipmitool - insecure pid file Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
References
- http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/ovmbulletinjul2016-3090546.html
- MDVSA-2011:196 vendor-advisory
- 47228 third-party-advisory
- 47376 third-party-advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=742837
- impitool-pid-dos(71763) vdb-entry
- 51036 vdb-entry
- DSA-2376 vendor-advisory
- RHSA-2011:1814 vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2011-17071 vendor-advisory
- [oss-security] 20111213 OpenIPMI: IPMI event daemon creates PID file with world writeable permissions mailing-list
- 47173 third-party-advisory
- FEDORA-2011-17065 vendor-advisory
- RHSA-2013:0123 vendor-advisory
- http://www.xerox.com/download/security/security-bulletin/16287-4d6b7b0c81f7b/cert_XRX13-003_v1.0.pdf