CVE-2017-7501

It was found that versions of rpm before 4.13.0.2 use temporary files with predictable names when installing an RPM. An attacker with ability to write in a directory where files will be installed could create symbolic links to an arbitrary location and modify content, and possibly permissions to arbitrary files, which could be used for denial of service or possibly privilege escalation.

Published: 2017-11-22 Last update: 2026-05-13 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-7501 is rated Low Risk (38.3/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.06%). 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-2017-7501

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 2023-03-07 0.95% 0.06% -0.89%
2 2022-02-04 1.29% 0.95% -0.34%
3 2021-06-30 — 1.29% —

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-7501

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
4.6 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 3.9 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-7501

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-7501

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2017-7501 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (rpm), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-7501
gentoo normal CVE-2017-7501: 1 GLSA(s) (201811-22), 1 atom(s) (app-arch/rpm); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2017-7501
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-7501
suse high CVE-2017-7501 severity important: SUSE including 21 source package names (0.9.1:rpm-4.11.2-16.21.1, 1.0.0:rpm-4.11.2-16.21.1, …), 243 product×package rows across 97 product lines (Container caasp/v4/default-http-backend, Container caasp/v4/dnsmasq-nanny, … (97 product lines)): Fixed 159, Known Not Affected 84. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-7501/
ubuntu low CVE-2017-7501 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (rpm), 22 status rows across 22 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 13, ignored 6, needed 3. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-7501

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-7501

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
rpm rpm < 4.13.0.3 cpe:2.3:a:rpm:rpm:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-7501

cvelogic Threat Intelligence