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Ubuntu LinuxOperating system · Canonical

CVE-2017-14180

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-02-02
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.20.7 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

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 · unedited
Apport 2.13 through 2.20.7 does not properly handle crashes originating from a PID namespace allowing local users to create certain files as root which an attacker could leverage to perform a denial of service via resource exhaustion or possibly gain root privileges, a different vulnerability than CVE-2017-14179.

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 confidence

Apport versions 2.13 through 2.20.7 fail to properly handle crashes originating from PID namespaces, allowing local users to create certain files as root. This improper handling could enable denial of service via resource exhaustion or potentially lead to privilege escalation.

MitigationUpgrade Apport to a version beyond 2.20.7 where the PID namespace crash handling is properly implemented. As a temporary workaround, consider restricting or disabling Apport crash reporting for untrusted contexts.

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
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 14.04= 16.04= 17.04= 17.10= 18.04
ApportApplication
Affected:>= 2.13, <= 2.20.7

CVSS 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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify Apport is installed
    Run 'which apport' or check your package manager for the apport package (e.g., 'dpkg -l apport' on Debian/Ubuntu systems)
    Affected if Apport is not installed on the system - if it is installed, proceed to next check
  2. Determine installed Apport version
    Run 'apport-cli --version' or 'dpkg -l apport' to obtain the exact version number of the installed Apport package
    Affected if The installed version falls within the range 2.13 through 2.20.7 (inclusive) - this indicates vulnerability to the PID namespace crash handling issue
  3. Confirm crash reporting is enabled
    Check Apport configuration files (typically in /etc/apport/ or ~/.config/apport/) for enabled settings, or run 'apport-cli --bug' to verify crash reporting functionality is active
    Affected if Crash reporting is enabled and Apport is running - the vulnerability only applies when Apport can process crash reports from PID namespaces
  4. Identify PID namespace usage
    Review running processes and containers to determine if PID namespaces are in use (check for 'unshare' processes, container runtimes like Docker/LXD, or namespace-enabled processes via 'ls -la /proc/*/ns/')
    Affected if The system or any user context is actively using PID namespaces - crashes originating from PID namespace processes trigger the flawed handling code

A system is affected if it has Apport version 2.13-2.20.7 installed, crash reporting is enabled, and the system uses or permits PID namespaces where crashes can occur, potentially allowing local users to create root-owned files or cause resource exhaustion.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.20.7
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Apport to a version beyond 2.20.7 where the PID namespace crash handling is properly implemented. As a temporary workaround, consider restricting or disabling Apport crash reporting for untrusted contexts.

Fix this in Ubuntu Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,390
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-14180 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data