#VU100982 Code Injection in needrestart - CVE-2024-48990

Vulnerability identifier: #VU100982

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 8.5 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:A/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2024-48990

CWE-ID: CWE-94

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: Yes

Vulnerable software:
needrestart
Universal components / Libraries / Libraries used by multiple products

Vendor: liske (Thomas Liske)

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to insecure handling of environment variables. A local user can trick the application into running the Python interpreter with an attacker-controlled PYTHONPATH environment variable and execute arbitrary code on the system as root.

Mitigation
Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

needrestart: 0.1 - 3.7

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External links
https://github.com/liske/needrestart/commit/fcc9a4401392231bef4ef5ed026a0d7a275149ab
https://www.qualys.com/2024/11/19/needrestart/needrestart.txt

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability. However, a fully functional exploit for this vulnerability is available.