CVE-2019-3696 | pcp: Local privilege escalation from user pcp to root through migrate_tempdirs

Exp

A Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory vulnerability in the packaging of pcp of SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15-ESPOS, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15-LTSS, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15-SP1, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Open Buildservice Development Tools 15, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15-LTSS, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP 15, SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12-SP4, SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12-SP5; openSUSE Leap 15.1 allows local user pcp to overwrite arbitrary files with arbitrary content. This issue affects: SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15-ESPOS pcp versions prior to 3.11.9-5.8.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15-LTSS pcp versions prior to 3.11.9-5.8.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 pcp versions prior to 3.11.9-5.8.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15-SP1 pcp versions prior to 4.3.1-3.5.3. SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Open Buildservice Development Tools 15 pcp versions prior to 3.11.9-5.8.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15-LTSS pcp versions prior to 3.11.9-5.8.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP 15 pcp versions prior to 3.11.9-5.8.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12-SP4 pcp versions prior to 3.11.9-6.14.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12-SP5 pcp versions prior to 3.11.9-6.14.1. openSUSE Leap 15.1 pcp versions prior to 4.3.1-lp151.2.3.1.

Published: 2020-03-03 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-3696 is rated High Exploit Risk (61.6/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.46%). 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-2019-3696

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-3696

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% 0.46% +0.35%
2 2025-11-21 0.03% 0.10% +0.07%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.03% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-3696

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.4 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/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: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: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.
 2.5 5.9 [email protected]
7.3 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 1.3 5.9 [email protected]
4.4 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P 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:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 3.4 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-3696

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-3696

vendor priority summary link
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-3696
suse high CVE-2019-3696 severity important: SUSE including 750 source package names (libpcp-devel-3.11.9-5.8.1, libpcp-devel-3.11.9-6.14.1, …), 1152 product×package rows across 27 product lines (SUSE Liberty Linux 7, SUSE Liberty Linux 8, … (27 product lines)): Fixed 1152. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-3696/

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-3696

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
opensuse pcp < 3.11.9-5.8.1 cpe:2.3:a:opensuse:pcp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse pcp < 4.3.1-3.5.3 cpe:2.3:a:opensuse:pcp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse pcp < 3.11.9-6.14.1 cpe:2.3:a:opensuse:pcp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse pcp < 4.3.1-lp151.2.3.1 cpe:2.3:a:opensuse:pcp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-3696

URL Tags
https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1153921 Exploit Issue Tracking Vendor Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence