Vulnerability in Needrestart
CVE-2024-48991
Qualys discovered that needrestart, before version 3.8, allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code as root by winning a race condition and tricking needrestart into running their own, fake Python interpreter (instead of the system's real Python interpreter). The initial security fix (6ce6136) introduced a regression which was subsequently resolved (42af5d3).
Vulnerability class: Race Condition
EPSS: 0.053 (91.7th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Needrestart — versions 0
- Needrestart_project Needrestart
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- security@ubuntu.com (issue-tracking, VDB Entry)
- security@ubuntu.com (Patch, patch)
- security@ubuntu.com (Patch, patch)
- security@ubuntu.com (Third Party Advisory, third-party-advisory)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2024-48991?
- CVE-2024-48991 is a high-severity vulnerability in Needrestart, classified under Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization (Race Condition). CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2024-11-19.
- How severe is CVE-2024-48991?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2024-48991 known to be exploited?
- 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.