| Name | CVE-2018-16888 |
| Description | It was discovered systemd does not correctly check the content of PIDFile files before using it to kill processes. When a service is run from an unprivileged user (e.g. User field set in the service file), a local attacker who is able to write to the PIDFile of the mentioned service may use this flaw to trick systemd into killing other services and/or privileged processes. Versions before v237 are vulnerable. |
| Source | CVE (at NVD; CERT, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more) |
Vulnerable and fixed packages
The table below lists information on source packages.
| Source Package | Release | Version | Status |
|---|
| systemd (PTS) | jessie, jessie (lts) | 215-17+deb8u15 | vulnerable |
| stretch (security) | 232-25+deb9u14 | vulnerable |
| stretch (lts), stretch | 232-25+deb9u17 | vulnerable |
| buster, buster (lts) | 241-7~deb10u11 | fixed |
| buster (security) | 241-7~deb10u10 | fixed |
| bullseye | 247.3-7+deb11u5 | fixed |
| bullseye (security) | 247.3-7+deb11u6 | fixed |
| bookworm | 252.31-1~deb12u1 | fixed |
| sid, trixie | 257~rc2-3 | fixed |
The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.
| Package | Type | Release | Fixed Version | Urgency | Origin | Debian Bugs |
|---|
| systemd | source | (unstable) | 237-1 | low | | |
Notes
[stretch] - systemd <ignored> (Minor issue, too intrusive to backport)
[jessie] - systemd <no-dsa> (low priority because this is inherently a bug in the PID file logic, too intrusive to backport)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1662867
Upstream issue: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/6632
Upstream patches: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/7816
[wheezy] - systemd <ignored> (Low priority issue, not worth fixing in wheezy)