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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2017-5618 json

GNU screen before 4.5.1 allows local users to modify arbitrary files and consequently gain root privileges by leveraging improper checking…

published 2017-03-20 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-14715

cvss
7.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.1%
EPSS 1.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 65%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

GNU screen before 4.5.1 allows local users to modify arbitrary files and consequently gain root privileges by leveraging improper checking of logfile permissions.

Patch / fix

  • screen Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.5.0-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-5618

  • screen openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.8.0-3.17

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11374-1

  • screen Alpine 3.5 4.5.1

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2017-5618

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2017-5618 updated cvss 7.0

screen: Privilege escalation via unsafe logfile handling

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 screen Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 screen Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 screen
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

1.09% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 65% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • openwall.com http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/01/29/3 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • lists.gnu.org https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/screen-devel/2017-01/msg00025.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.