elf/dl-load.c in the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) 2.19 through 2.26 mishandles RPATH and RUNPATH containing $ORIGIN for a privileged…

Published 8 y ago 2017-12-18 · modified 4 mo ago 2026-06-17 · JSON

CVSS

7.8

v3.0 · NVD

CISA KEV

not known exploited

EPSS

2.9%

percentile 87%

Public exploits

none known

elf/dl-load.c in the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) 2.19 through 2.26 mishandles RPATH and RUNPATH containing $ORIGIN for a privileged (setuid or AT_SECURE) program, which allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse library in the current working directory, related to the fillin_rpath and decompose_rpath functions. This is associated with misinterpretion of an empty RPATH/RUNPATH token as the "./" directory. NOTE: this configuration of RPATH/RUNPATH for a privileged program is apparently very uncommon; most likely, no such program is shipped with any common Linux distribution.

Exploit prediction (EPSS)

2.90% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 87% of all scored CVEs.

CVSS scores

Assigned by	Version	Score	Vector
NVD	3.0	7.8	`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
NVD	2.0	9.3	`AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C`

Affected products

n/a glibc 2.19 through 2.26

Classification

Weakness

CWE-426 Untrusted Search Path

References

sourceware.org /bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=22625 · x_refsource_CONFIRM, x_transferred
securityfocus.com /bid/102228 · vdb-entry, x_refsource_BID, x_transferred
sourceware.org /ml/libc-alpha/2017-12/msg00528.html · x_refsource_CONFIRM, x_transferred
bugs.debian.org /884615 · x_refsource_CONFIRM, x_transferred
access.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2018:3092 · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT, x_transferred
access.redhat.com /errata/RHBA-2019:0327 · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT, x_transferred

Sources

CVE List: CVE-2017-16997
NVD: CVE-2017-16997

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