CVE-2019-15790: apport_project apport Execution with Unnecessary Privileges

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2019-15790 is a low (CVSS 3.3) Execution with Unnecessary Privileges vulnerability in apport_project apport. EPSS estimates a 0.52% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 43.2% of scored vulnerabilities. 3 public exploits are recorded.

Timeline

1. 27-04-2020
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 03-11-2025
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

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.

• CWE-250Execution with Unnecessary PrivilegesThe product performs an operation at a privilege level that is higher than the minimum level required, which creates new weaknesses or amplifies the consequences of other weaknesses.
• CWE-269Improper Privilege ManagementThe product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.