Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2017-17087

fileio.c in Vim prior to 8.0.1263 sets the group ownership of a .swp file to the editor's primary group (which may be different from the group ownership of the original file), which allows local users to obtain sensitive information by leveraging an applicable group membership, as demonstrated by /etc/shadow owned by root:shadow mode 0640, but /etc/.shadow.swp owned by root:users mode 0640, a different vulnerability than CVE-2017-1000382.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), for affected systems. Impacting 3 products from vim, from debian, from canonical organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2017, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.

Published

2017-12-01T08:29:00.670

Last Modified

2025-04-20T01:37:25.860

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 5.5 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Access Vector: LOCAL
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
Integrity Impact: NONE
Availability Impact: NONE

Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-668

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	vim	vim	< 8.0.1263	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	8.0	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	9.0	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	16.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	18.04	Yes

References

http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/11/27/2 Mailing List ([email protected])
http://security.cucumberlinux.com/security/details.php?id=166 Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/5a73e0ca54c77e067c3b12ea6f35e3e8681e8cf8 Patch, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/vim_dev/sRT9BtjLWMk/BRtSXNU4BwAJ Issue Tracking, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/08/msg00003.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/01/msg00003.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4582-1/ Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/11/27/2 Mailing List (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://security.cucumberlinux.com/security/details.php?id=166 Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/5a73e0ca54c77e067c3b12ea6f35e3e8681e8cf8 Patch, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/vim_dev/sRT9BtjLWMk/BRtSXNU4BwAJ Issue Tracking, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/08/msg00003.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/01/msg00003.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4582-1/ Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For vim's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.