CVE-2019-18684

Exp

Sudo through 1.8.29 allows local users to escalate to root if they have write access to file descriptor 3 of the sudo process. This occurs because of a race condition between determining a uid, and the setresuid and openat system calls. The attacker can write "ALL ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" to /proc/#####/fd/3 at a time when Sudo is prompting for a password. NOTE: This has been disputed due to the way Linux /proc works. It has been argued that writing to /proc/#####/fd/3 would only be viable if you had permission to write to /etc/sudoers. Even with write permission to /proc/#####/fd/3, it would not help you write to /etc/sudoers

Published: 2019-11-04 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-18684 is rated Exploit Available (50.5/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.29%). 1 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-2019-18684

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-18684

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 2026-06-15 0.10% 0.29% +0.19%
2 2025-11-21 0.03% 0.10% +0.07%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.03% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-18684

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.0 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/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]
6.9 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C 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:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.4 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-18684

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-18684

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2019-18684: 1 source package rows (sudo); 6 state rows across 3 repos (3.22-community, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 0, open 6. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2019-18684
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-18684
suse medium CVE-2019-18684 severity moderate: SUSE including 2 source package names (sudo, sudo-devel), 22 product×package rows across 19 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 3.0, SUSE Container as a Service Platform 1.0, … (19 product lines)): Known Not Affected 22. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-18684/
ubuntu low CVE-2019-18684 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (sudo), 6 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 5, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-18684

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-18684

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
sudo_project sudo <= 1.8.29 cpe:2.3:a:sudo_project:sudo:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-18684

cvelogic Threat Intelligence