Apport reads arbitrary files if ~/.config/apport/settings is a symlink

published 2020-02-08 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2019-3154

cvss: 3.8; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.5%; EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 39%
public exploits: 0; none known

Kevin Backhouse discovered that apport would read a user-supplied configuration file with elevated privileges. By replacing the file with a symbolic link, a user could get apport to read any file on the system as root, with unknown consequences.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 1

Canonical apport 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm2, 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.20, 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.8, 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.1

apport Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.20
apport Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.8
apport Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-11481

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

0.45% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 39% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	3.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N
NVD	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	6.1	AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:P/A:P

Affected products

Canonical apport

Classification

Weakness

CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

References

usn.ubuntu.com /usn/usn-4171-1
third-party-advisory
usn.ubuntu.com /usn/usn-4171-2
third-party-advisory
packetstormsecurity.com /files/172858/Ubuntu-Apport-Whoopsie-DoS-Integer-Overflow.html

Sources

CVE List CVE-2019-11481
NVD CVE-2019-11481

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