CVE Catalog

CVE-2017-12172

MediumCVSS 6.7
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.59%

47th percentile - higher than 47% of all known CVEs

Summary

PostgreSQL 10.x before 10.1, 9.6.x before 9.6.6, 9.5.x before 9.5.10, 9.4.x before 9.4.15, 9.3.x before 9.3.20, and 9.2.x before 9.2.24 runs under a non-root operating system account, and database superusers have effective ability to run arbitrary code under that system account. Packager-authored startup implementations use a log file name that the database superuser can replace with a symbolic link, and as root they open(), chmod() and/or chown() this log file name.

Risk Assessment

A database superuser can exploit this to escalate to root privileges when root starts the server, resulting in full compromise of the operating system.

Recommendation

Upgrade PostgreSQL to 10.1, 9.6.6, 9.5.10, 9.4.15, 9.3.20, or 9.2.24 (or later) and review the packager-provided startup scripts for safe handling of the log file name.

Other vulnerabilities in PostgreSQL

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

PostgreSQL 10.x before 10.1, 9.6.x before 9.6.6, 9.5.x before 9.5.10, 9.4.x before 9.4.15, 9.3.x before 9.3.20, and 9.2.x before 9.2.24 runs under a non-root operating system account, and database superusers have effective ability to run arbitrary code under that system account. PostgreSQL provides a script for starting the database server during system boot. Packages of PostgreSQL for many operating systems provide their own, packager-authored startup implementations. Several implementations use a log file name that the database superuser can replace with a symbolic link. As root, they open(), chmod() and/or chown() this log file name. This often suffices for the database superuser to escalate to root privileges when root starts the server.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS