CVE-2017-16355

In agent/Core/SpawningKit/Spawner.h in Phusion Passenger 5.1.10 (fixed in Passenger Open Source 5.1.11 and Passenger Enterprise 5.1.10), if Passenger is running as root, it is possible to list the contents of arbitrary files on a system by symlinking a file named REVISION from the application root folder to a file of choice and querying passenger-status --show=xml.

Published: 2017-12-14 Last update: 2026-05-13 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-16355 is rated Low Risk (29.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.14%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-16355

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-03-30 0.30% 0.14% -0.16%
2 2025-03-29 0.06% 0.30% +0.24%
3 2023-03-07 — 0.06% —

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-16355

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.0 3.6 [email protected]
1.2 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:H)
Exploitation requires uncommon or highly specific conditions.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 1.9 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-16355

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2017-16355

GHSA-cv3f-px9r-54hm · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: rubygems — Phusion Passenger information disclosure

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-16355

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-16355 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (passenger), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-16355
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-16355
suse medium — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-16355/
ubuntu medium CVE-2017-16355 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (passenger, ruby-passenger), 28 status rows across 14 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial, zesty): DNE 14, not-affected 6, released 5, ignored 2, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-16355

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-16355

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
phusion passenger >= 5.0.10, < 5.1.10 cpe:2.3:a:phusion:passenger:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
phusion passenger >= 5.0.10, < 5.1.11 cpe:2.3:a:phusion:passenger:*:*:*:*:open_source:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-16355

cvelogic Threat Intelligence