CVE-2019-15790 | Apport reads PID files with elevated privileges

Exp

Apport reads and writes information on a crashed process to /proc/pid with elevated privileges. Apport then determines which user the crashed process belongs to by reading /proc/pid through get_pid_info() in data/apport. An unprivileged user could exploit this to read information about a privileged running process by exploiting PID recycling. This information could then be used to obtain ASLR offsets for a process with an existing memory corruption vulnerability. The initial fix introduced regressions in the Python Apport library due to a missing argument in Report.add_proc_environ in apport/report.py. It also caused an autopkgtest failure when reading /proc/pid and with Python 2 compatibility by reading /proc maps. The initial and subsequent regression fixes are in 2.20.11-0ubuntu16, 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.6, 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.12, 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.22 and 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm3.

Published: 2020-04-28 Last update: 2025-11-03 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-15790 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.06%). 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-2019-15790

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-15790

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 0.05% 0.06% +0.01%
2 2025-12-28 0.06% 0.05% -0.01%
3 2025-12-27 — 0.06% —

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-15790

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
2.8 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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: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: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.
 1.1 1.4 [email protected]
3.3 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/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:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
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.
 1.8 1.4 [email protected]
2.1 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/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:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
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.
 3.9 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-15790

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-15790

vendor priority summary link
suse low CVE-2019-15790 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-2019-15790/
ubuntu medium CVE-2019-15790 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-2019-15790

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-15790

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apport_project apport — cpe:2.3:a:apport_project:apport:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-15790

URL Tags
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172858/Ubuntu-Apport-Whoopsie-DoS-Integer-Overflow.html
https://bugs.launchpad.net/apport/+bug/1854237 Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/1839795 Exploit Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/1850929 Exploit Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/1851806 Exploit Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-2/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-3/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-4/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-5/ Third Party Advisory
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2025/Jun/9
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