CVE-2018-12615

An issue was discovered in switchGroup() in agent/ExecHelper/ExecHelperMain.cpp in Phusion Passenger before 5.3.2. The set of groups (gidset) is not set correctly, leaving it up to randomness (i.e., uninitialized memory) which supplementary groups are actually being set while lowering privileges.

Published: 2018-06-21 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-12615 is rated Low Risk (34.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.20%). 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-2018-12615

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 0.68% 0.20% -0.48%
2 2025-03-29 0.20% 0.68% +0.48%
3 2025-03-17 — 0.20% —

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-12615

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-12615

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2018-12615

GHSA-4284-jfhc-f854 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: rubygems — Phusion Passenger incorrect permission assignment

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-12615

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2018-12615 unimportant 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-2018-12615
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-12615
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-12615 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (passenger, ruby-passenger), 18 status rows across 9 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 9, not-affected 5, ignored 4. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-12615

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-12615

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
phusion passenger < 5.3.2 cpe:2.3:a:phusion:passenger:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-12615

cvelogic Threat Intelligence