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Fencer Vulns
high 7.3

CVE-2021-32548 json

apport read_file() function could follow maliciously constructed symbolic links

published 2021-06-12 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-19393

cvss
7.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 21%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

It was discovered that read_file() in apport/hookutils.py would follow symbolic links or open FIFOs. When this function is used by the openjdk-8 package apport hooks, it could expose private data to other local users.

Patch / fix

  • Canonical apport 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm7, 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.30+esm1, 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.24, 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.18, 2.20.11-0ubuntu50.7, 2.20.11-0ubuntu65.1
  • apport Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.24
  • apport Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.18
  • apport Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm7
  • apport Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.30+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-32548

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Exploit prediction

0.29% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 21% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:L
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Affected products

  • Canonical apport

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
  • CWE-61 UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following

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.