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Enterprise LinuxOperating system · Redhat

CVE-2017-15131

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-01-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 0.15.5 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
It was found that system umask policy is not being honored when creating XDG user directories, since Xsession sources xdg-user-dirs.sh before setting umask policy. This only affects xdg-user-dirs before 0.15.5 as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

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 · high confidence

The Xsession script sources xdg-user-dirs.sh before applying the system umask policy, causing XDG user directories (Desktop, Downloads, Documents, etc.) to be created with incorrect permissions based on the default umask rather than the configured system policy. This results in potential information disclosure through improperly permissive directory access.

MitigationUpgrade xdg-user-dirs to version 0.15.5 or later, or modify Xsession to set umask policy before sourcing xdg-user-dirs.sh to ensure proper permission inheritance.

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
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
Xdg User DirsApplication
Affected:< 0.15.5

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. Check xdg-user-dirs version
    Run 'xdg-user-dir --version' or use your package manager to query the installed version (e.g., 'rpm -q xdg-user-dirs' on RHEL/CentOS, 'dpkg -l xdg-user-dirs' on Debian/Ubuntu)
    Affected if The installed version is earlier than 0.15.5
  2. Locate Xsession script
    Find the Xsession or display manager startup script on your system (common paths: /etc/X11/Xsession, /etc/xdg/xdg-default/Xsession, or check your display manager configuration)
    Affected if The system uses an Xsession script to initialize the graphical login environment
  3. Verify xdg-user-dirs.sh sourcing order
    Open the Xsession script and examine whether xdg-user-dirs.sh (or a command that invokes xdg-user-dirs-update) is sourced or executed before the umask setting line
    Affected if xdg-user-dirs.sh is sourced or executed BEFORE the umask command that applies the system policy

You are affected if xdg-user-dirs version is below 0.15.5 AND your Xsession script sources xdg-user-dirs before applying the system umask policy.

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 0.15.5 or later
Fixed in 0.15.5
Interim mitigation

Upgrade xdg-user-dirs to version 0.15.5 or later, or modify Xsession to set umask policy before sourcing xdg-user-dirs.sh to ensure proper permission inheritance.

Fix this in Enterprise Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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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-2017-15131 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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