CVE-2019-11482 | Race condition between reading current working directory and writing a core dump

Sander Bos discovered a time of check to time of use (TOCTTOU) vulnerability in apport that allowed a user to cause core files to be written in arbitrary directories.

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-2019-11482 is rated Low Risk (25.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.09%). 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-2019-11482

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 2025-11-21 0.03% 0.09% +0.05%
2 2025-11-18 0.10% 0.03% -0.07%
3 2025-05-07 — 0.10% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-11482

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.2 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L 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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
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:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.1 2.7 [email protected]
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]
1.9 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:M/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: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:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 3.4 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-11482

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-11482

vendor priority summary link
suse low CVE-2019-11482 severity low: SUSE including 3 source package names (apport-0.114-12.8.11.1, apport-crashdb-sle-0.114-0.8.11.1, apport-gtk-0.114-12.8.11.1), 6 product×package rows across 2 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1-TERADATA, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3-TERADATA): Fixed 6. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-11482/
ubuntu medium CVE-2019-11482 medium 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-2019-11482

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-11482

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-2019-11482

URL Tags
https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-4171-1 Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-4171-2 Third Party Advisory
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