CVE-2018-1122

Exp

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.

Published: 2018-05-23 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-1122 is rated High Exploit Risk (63.2/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.32%). 3 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2018-1122

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
44806 exploit_db edb 2018-05-30 Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-1122

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 2025-12-21 0.38% 0.32% -0.06%
2 2025-11-21 0.14% 0.38% +0.24%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.14% —

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-1122

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.3 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 1.3 5.9 [email protected]
7.0 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/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: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: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.
 1.0 5.9 [email protected]
4.4 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/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:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
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.
 3.4 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-1122

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-1122

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-1122 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (procps), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-1122
gentoo normal CVE-2018-1122: 1 GLSA(s) (201805-14), 1 atom(s) (sys-process/procps); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2018-1122
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-1122
suse medium CVE-2018-1122 severity moderate: SUSE including 496 source package names (0.1.0:libprocps7-3.3.15-7.7.26, 0.1.0:procps-3.3.15-7.7.26, …), 961 product×package rows across 486 product lines (Container bci/bci-init, Container bci/gcc, … (486 product lines)): Fixed 804, Known Affected 157. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-1122/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-1122 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (procps), 5 status rows across 5 suites (artful, bionic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-1122

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-1122

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
procps-ng_project procps-ng < 3.3.15 cpe:2.3:a:procps-ng_project:procps-ng:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 17.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:17.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-1122

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-10/msg00058.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-10/msg00059.html
http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2018/q2/122 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/104214 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2189
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2020:0595
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2018-1122 Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/05/msg00021.html Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201805-14 Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3658-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3658-3/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4208 Third Party Advisory
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44806/ Exploit Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://www.qualys.com/2018/05/17/procps-ng-audit-report-advisory.txt Exploit Third Party Advisory
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