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Low · 2.8 CVE-2019-15790 EUVD-2019-6713GHSA-mv59-w8cf-g9q7

Apport reads PID files with elevated privileges

Published Apr 27, 2020 · Updated Nov 3, 2025 · 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.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Canonical Apport 2.14.1 – < 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm3, 2.20.1 – < 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.22, 2.20.9 – < 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.12, 2.20.11 – < 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.6 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm3

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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS apport 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.8 USN-4171-1
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS apport 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.20 USN-4171-1
Show 1 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS apport 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm2 USN-4171-2

Advisories 2

References