CVE-2023-6917 | Pcp: unsafe use of directories allows pcp to root privilege escalation

A vulnerability has been identified in the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) package, stemming from the mixed privilege levels utilized by systemd services associated with PCP. While certain services operate within the confines of limited PCP user/group privileges, others are granted full root privileges. This disparity in privilege levels poses a risk when privileged root processes interact with directories or directory trees owned by unprivileged PCP users. Specifically, this vulnerability may lead to the compromise of PCP user isolation and facilitate local PCP-to-root exploits, particularly through symlink attacks. These vulnerabilities underscore the importance of maintaining robust privilege separation mechanisms within PCP to mitigate the potential for unauthorized privilege escalation.

Published: 2024-02-28 Last update: 2026-02-25 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-6917 is rated Low Risk (25.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: 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-2023-6917

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 0.06% 0.02% -0.04%
2 2025-11-18 0.01% 0.06% +0.04%
3 2025-04-15 0.01%

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-6917

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.0 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
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:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
0.8 5.2 [email protected]
6.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/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:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
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.
0.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-6917

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-6917

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-6917 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (pcp), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-6917
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-6917
suse medium CVE-2023-6917 severity moderate: SUSE including 503 source package names (2.1.3-5.6:dracut-059+suse.571.g32b61281-1.1, 2.1.3-5.6:libpcp3-6.2.0-slfo.1.1_3.1, …), 730 product×package rows across 31 product lines (Container suse/pcp, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-os-container, … (31 product lines)): Fixed 730. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-6917/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-6917 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (pcp), 11 status rows across 11 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 7, needs-triage 4. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-6917

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-6917

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
sgi performance_co-pilot < 6.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:sgi:performance_co-pilot:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-6917

cvelogic Threat Intelligence