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CVE-2020-8833

5.6 · MEDIUM

Time-of-check Time-of-use Race Condition vulnerability on crash report ownership change in Apport allows for a possible privilege escalation opportunity.

Published Apr 22, 2020CWE-367EPSS 0.34%

Overview

CVE-2020-8833 is a medium-severity vulnerability. It was published on April 22, 2020 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.6 (MEDIUM).

This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.6, rated MEDIUM. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.

Technical description

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.

Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-8833?

CVE-2020-8833 is a medium-severity vulnerability. It was published on April 22, 2020 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.6 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2020-8833?

This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.6, rated MEDIUM. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.

How do I fix or remediate CVE-2020-8833?

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2020-8833?

CyberStrike is an open-source, AI-augmented pentesting engine. Rather than flag a version number, it tests whether an issue like CVE-2020-8833 is actually reachable in your own applications and APIs, then verifies each finding before reporting it. That tells you if the weakness is a real, exploitable risk in your environment or a false positive you can safely deprioritize.

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