CVE-2018-1122

Publication date 17 May 2018

Last updated 25 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Cvss 3 Severity Score

Description

procps-ng before version 3.3.15 is vulnerable to a local privilege escalation in top. If a user runs top with HOME unset in an attacker-controlled directory, the attacker could achieve privilege escalation by exploiting one of several vulnerabilities in the config_file() function.

Read the notes from the security team

Status

Show unmaintained releases

Package	Ubuntu Release	Status
procps	18.04 LTS bionic	Fixed 2:3.3.12-3ubuntu1.1
	17.10 artful	Fixed 2:3.3.12-1ubuntu2.1
	16.04 LTS xenial	Fixed 2:3.3.10-4ubuntu2.4
	14.04 LTS trusty	Fixed 1:3.3.9-1ubuntu2.3

Notes

mdeslaur

[PATCH 097/117] top: Do not default to the cwd in configs_read().

leosilva

for precise/esm code request a POC test, and a huge backport.

Patch details

For informational purposes only. We recommend not to cherry-pick updates. How can I get the fixes?

Package	Patch details
procps	Upstream: b45c480

Severity score breakdown

Parameter	Value
Base score	7.0 · High
Attack vector	Local
Attack complexity	High
Privileges required	Low
User interaction	None
Scope	Unchanged
Confidentiality	High
Integrity impact	High
Availability impact	High
Vector	CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H