CVE-2019-11481 | Apport reads arbitrary files if ~/.config/apport/settings is a symlink

Kevin Backhouse discovered that apport would read a user-supplied configuration file with elevated privileges. By replacing the file with a symbolic link, a user could get apport to read any file on the system as root, with unknown consequences.

Published: 2020-02-08 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-11481 is rated Low Risk (29.5/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.19%). 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-2019-11481

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 2026-05-26 0.13% 0.19% +0.06%
2 2025-12-18 0.18% 0.13% -0.05%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.18% —

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-11481

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.8 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/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: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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.0 1.4 [email protected]
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/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]
6.1 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/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:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 3.9 8.5 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-11481

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-11481

vendor priority summary link
suse medium CVE-2019-11481 severity moderate: SUSE including 2 source package names (apport, apport-crashdb-sle), 2 product×package rows across 1 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 LTSS): Will Not Fix 2. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-11481/
ubuntu low CVE-2019-11481 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (apport), 6 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 5, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-11481

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-11481

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 19.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:19.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 19.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:19.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apport_project apport — cpe:2.3:a:apport_project:apport:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-11481

cvelogic Threat Intelligence