CVE-2015-5186
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedAudit before 2.4.4 in Linux does not sanitize escape characters in filenames.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceThe Linux Audit subsystem before version 2.4.4 fails to properly sanitize escape characters in filenames when logging audit events. This could allow an attacker to inject malicious content or manipulate audit logs via specially crafted filenames containing escape sequences.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 2.4.3CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the installed Linux Audit versionRun 'auditctl -V' or 'rpm -q audit' (RHEL/CentOS) or 'dpkg -l audit' (Debian) to retrieve the installed audit package versionAffected if The version displayed is 2.4.3 or earlier
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Verify the audit daemon is runningRun 'ps aux | grep auditd' or 'systemctl status auditd' to confirm the audit daemon (auditd) is activeAffected if The audit daemon is running and processing events
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Check if file system auditing is enabledRun 'auditctl -l' to list active audit rules, particularly any rules that monitor file access or operationsAffected if There are active file monitoring rules (such as -w /path/to/file -p rwxa)
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Inspect audit logs for escape sequencesExamine /var/log/audit/audit.log using 'cat' or 'less' and look for filenames containing escape characters like \n, \r, \e, \033, or other non-printable characters that could indicate injection attemptsAffected if Log entries contain raw escape sequences or unexpected newlines within filename fields
You are affected if the Linux Audit version is 2.4.3 or earlier AND the audit daemon is actively logging file-related events, as the lack of escape character sanitization only applies when audit logging is in use.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade the Linux Audit subsystem to version 2.4.4 or later, which includes proper escape character sanitization for filenames in audit log output.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-5186 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-5186 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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