apport process_report() arbitrary file write

published 2021-06-12 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-19402

cvss: 5.2; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.4%; EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 33%
public exploits: 0; none known

It was discovered that the process_report() function in data/whoopsie-upload-all allowed arbitrary file writes via symlinks.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 1

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-2021-32557

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

0.39% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 33% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

bugs.launchpad.net https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/1917904 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	5.2	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L
NVD	3.1	7.1	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	3.6	AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

Affected products

Canonical apport

Classification

Weakness

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

References

bugs.launchpad.net /ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/1917904
exploit, vendor-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2021-32557
NVD CVE-2021-32557

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.

Summary