Time-of-check Time-of-use Race Condition vulnerability on crash report ownership change in Apport allows for a possible privilege escalation opportunity. If fs.protected_symlinks is disabled, this can be exploited between the os.open and os.chown calls when the Apport cron script clears out crash files of size 0. A symlink with the same name as the deleted file can then be created upon which chown will be called, changing the file owner to root. Fixed in versions 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.23, 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.14, 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.8 and 2.20.11-0ubuntu22.
This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.6, requiring local system access to exploit but requires specific conditions to be met without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), for affected systems. Impacting 2 products from canonical, from apport_project organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.
Reported in 2020, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.
2020-04-22T22:15:12.577
2024-11-21T05:39:31.937
Modified
CVSSv3.1: 5.6 (MEDIUM)
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
3.4
2.9
| Type | Vendor | Product | Version/Range | Vulnerable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating System | canonical | ubuntu_linux | 14.04 | Yes |
| Operating System | canonical | ubuntu_linux | 16.04 | Yes |
| Operating System | canonical | ubuntu_linux | 18.04 | Yes |
| Operating System | canonical | ubuntu_linux | 19.10 | Yes |
| Application | apport_project | apport | - | Yes |
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 canonical'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.