CVE-2019-2389: Process termination via PID file manipulation

Severity: medium (CVSS 4.2 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2019-08-30 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-732

Description

Incorrect scoping of kill operations in MongoDB Server's packaged SysV init scripts allow users with write access to the PID file to insert arbitrary PIDs to be killed when the root user stops the MongoDB process via SysV init. This issue affects MongoDB Server v4.0 versions prior to 4.0.11; MongoDB Server v3.6 versions prior to 3.6.14; MongoDB Server v3.4 versions prior to 3.4.22.

Affected products

MongoDB: from 3.4.0 before 3.4.22; from 3.6.0 before 3.6.14; from 4.0.0 before 4.0.11 — fixed in 3.4.22, 3.6.14, 4.0.11

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: MongoDB 3.4.22, 3.6.14, 4.0.11. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2019-2389 or the next vulnerability affects your stack