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Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')

CVE-2018-12029

High
7/10

Summary

A race condition in the nginx module in Phusion Passenger 3.x through 5.x before 5.3.2 allows local escalation of privileges when a non-standard passenger_instance_registry_dir with insufficiently strict permissions is configured. Replacing a file with a symlink after the file was created, but before it was chowned, leads to the target of the link being chowned via the path. Targeting sensitive files such as root's crontab file allows privilege escalation.

  • HIGH
  • LOCAL
  • HIGH
  • UNCHANGED
  • NONE
  • LOW
  • HIGH
  • HIGH

CWE-362 - Race Condition

A race condition occurs in a shared memory program when two threads/processes access the same shared memory data, and at least one thread executes a write operation. This vulnerability manipulates the time to check vs. time to use (TOC/TOU) gap between the threads in the critical section to cause disorientation in the shared data. The impact can vary from compromising the confidentiality of the system to causing the system to crash or to execute arbitrary code.

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published