local privilege escalation in SUSE postgresql init script

published 2018-03-01 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-6287

cvss: 7.3; version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 1.0%; EPSS 1.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 62%
public exploits: 1; Exploit-DB

A race condition in the postgresql init script could be used by attackers able to access the postgresql account to escalate their privileges to root.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 1

postgresql postgresql 9.4-0.5.3.1

postgresql-init SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4 9.4-0.5.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2017:3107-1

Timeline

2018-03-01 Published
2018-08-13 First public exploit (EDB-45184)

Exploit prediction

1.00% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 62% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

EDB-45184 PostgreSQL 9.4-0.5.3 - Privilege Escalation local, 2018-08-13

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.0	7.3	CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	3.0	7.0	CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	6.9	AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

suse postgresql-init

Classification

Weakness

CWE-61 UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following
CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization

Technology feeds

PostgreSQL rss critical rss

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2017-14798
NVD CVE-2017-14798

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