CVE-2019-11481: Apport reads arbitrary files if ~/.config/apport/settings is a symlink

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2020-02-08 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-59

Description

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.

Affected products

Apport: all versions
Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 14.04, 16.04, 18.04, 19.04, 19.10

References

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172858/Ubuntu-Apport-Whoopsie-DoS-Integer-Overflow.html
https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-4171-1
https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-4171-2
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172858/Ubuntu-Apport-Whoopsie-DoS-Integer-Overflow.html
https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-4171-1
https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-4171-2

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