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High · 7.0 Public exploit CVE-2018-15686 EUVD-2018-7556GHSA-86rx-vp92-xvgg

systemd: reexec state injection: fgets() on overlong lines leads to line splitting

Published Oct 26, 2018 · Updated Jun 9, 2025 · Assigned by canonical

Vendor: systemd Product: systemd Package: systemd Package: systemd Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

A vulnerability in unit_deserialize of systemd allows an attacker to supply arbitrary state across systemd re-execution via NotifyAccess. This can be used to improperly influence systemd execution and possibly lead to root privilege escalation. Affected releases are systemd versions up to and including 239.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
systemd systemd unspecified – ≤ 239 —

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 ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 systemd 239-12 —
Debian 13 systemd 239-12 —
Debian 12 systemd 239-12 —
Debian 8 systemd 215-17+deb8u8 DLA-1580-1

Ubuntu

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS systemd 237-3ubuntu10.6 USN-3816-1
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS systemd 229-4ubuntu21.8 USN-3816-1

Red Hat

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
RHEL 7 systemd +9 219-67.el7 RHSA-2019:2091
Show 5 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
RHEL 7.6 EUS systemd +9 219-62.el7_6.11 RHSA-2019:3222
RHEL 7.5 EUS systemd +9 219-57.el7_5.9 RHSA-2020:1264
RHEL 7.4 TUS systemd +9 219-42.el7_4.20 RHSA-2020:0593
RHEL 7.4 E4S systemd +9 219-42.el7_4.20 RHSA-2020:0593
RHEL 7.4 AUS systemd +9 219-42.el7_4.20 RHSA-2020:0593

SUSE

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 systemd 234-24.15.1 SUSE-SU-2018:3644-1
SLES 12 SP4 systemd 228-150.53.3 SUSE-SU-2018:3767-2
SLES 12 SP3 systemd 228-150.53.3 SUSE-SU-2018:3767-1
SLES 12 SP2 systemd 228-150.53.3 SUSE-SU-2018:3767-1
SLES 12 SP1 systemd 210-116.19.1 SUSE-SU-2019:0054-1
Show 7 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 12 systemd 210-70.74.1 SUSE-SU-2019:0053-1
SLES for SAP 12 SP4 systemd 228-150.53.3 SUSE-SU-2018:3767-2
SLES for SAP 12 SP3 systemd 228-150.53.3 SUSE-SU-2018:3767-1
SLES for SAP 12 SP2 systemd 228-150.53.3 SUSE-SU-2018:3767-1
SLES for SAP 12 SP1 systemd 210-116.19.1 SUSE-SU-2019:0054-2
SUSE OpenStack Cloud 7 systemd 228-150.53.3 SUSE-SU-2018:3767-1
SUSE Enterprise Storage 4 systemd 228-150.53.3 SUSE-SU-2018:3767-1

openSUSE

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed systemd 249.4-2.2 openSUSE-SU-2024:11420-1

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2 systemd +9 219-78.amzn2.0.14 ALAS2-2021-1647

Oracle Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Oracle Linux 7 systemd +9 219-67.0.1.el7 ELSA-2019-2091

Public exploits

Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.

Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.

Exploit-DB 1

GitHub 1 repository

Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.

Advisories 16

References