Race condition between reading current working directory and writing a core dump
Sander Bos discovered a time of check to time of use (TOCTTOU) vulnerability in apport that allowed a user to cause core files to be written in arbitrary directories.
- Published
- Feb 8, 2020
- Updated
- Jun 16, 2026
- EPSS
- 0.2% · 13th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-367
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Report tools
Action score
18
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 18 / 40 · 4.7 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 0 / 30 · 0.2%
CNA vs NVD score
- NVD
- 4.7
- CNA · canonical
- 4.2
- 0.5 point gap
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L
The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.
Affected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| canonical | ubuntu linux | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux |
| apport project | apport | cpe:2.3:a:apport_project:apport |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- apport project apportall versions
- canonical ubuntu linux14.04
- canonical ubuntu linux16.04
- canonical ubuntu linux18.04
- canonical ubuntu linux19.04
- canonical ubuntu linux19.10
Versions reported by the vendor
Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (canonical). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.
Canonical apport
- 2.14.1 and later · before 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm2affected
- 2.20.1 and later · before 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.20affected
- 2.20.9 and later · before 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.8affected
- 2.20.11 and later · before 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.1affected
Same product
canonical: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
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- CVE-2016-4054Buffer overflow in Squid 3.x before 3.5.17 and 4.x before 4.0.9 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted Edge Side Incl55Plan
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
No nightly-computed relations.
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
—
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
- A low-privileged account is enough.
- No user action is required.
- Special conditions such as timing or configuration are required.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- high · data can be read
- Integrity
- none
- Availability
- none
- Attack vector
- Local
- Attack complexity
- High
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- High
- Integrity impact
- None
- Availability impact
- None
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-367 · Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race ConditionCVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
nvd-primary
Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for helpChange log
No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.
References
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.