CertificationApplication · Redhat

CVE-2018-10870

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-07-19
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
redhat-certification does not properly sanitize paths in rhcertStore.py:__saveResultsFile. A remote attacker could use this flaw to overwrite any file, potentially gaining remote code execution.

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

A path traversal vulnerability in redhat-certification's rhcertStore.py:__saveResultsFile function allows remote attackers to write arbitrary files to the filesystem due to insufficient sanitization of user-controlled path inputs. This can enable remote code execution by overwriting sensitive system or application files.

MitigationImplement strict path validation in __saveResultsFile to ensure paths resolve within an allowed directory, reject paths containing traversal sequences (../), and normalize paths before writing.

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
CertificationApplication
Affected:all versions

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

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 redhat-certification package is installed
    Run 'rpm -qa | grep -i redhat-certification' (RHEL/CentOS) or check your system's package manager for the redhat-certification package
    Affected if The package is installed - all versions are affected according to the CVE data
  2. Locate the vulnerable rhcertStore.py file
    Search for the file using 'find / -name rhcertStore.py 2>/dev/null' or check common paths like /usr/lib/python*/site-packages/rhcert/
    Affected if The file exists on the system - this contains the vulnerable __saveResultsFile function
  3. Inspect the __saveResultsFile function for path traversal vulnerability
    Examine the source code of rhcertStore.py and locate the __saveResultsFile function - look for file write operations without proper path sanitization (missing '../' filtering or path normalization)
    Affected if The function contains unsanitized path inputs being used in file write operations - this is the vulnerable code path
  4. Determine if the vulnerable function is exposed
    Check if rhcert provides a web service, API, or network-accessible interface that invokes __saveResultsFile - check service configurations and listening ports
    Affected if The certification service is network-accessible and processes user-controlled data through the vulnerable function
  5. Check for web service or API configuration
    Review service configs in /etc/rhcert/ or check if the service runs as a daemon (look for rhcertd or similar processes) that accepts external input
    Affected if The service accepts remote or external input that could supply the malicious path values used by __saveResultsFile

If redhat-certification is installed and its rhcertStore.py contains the __saveResultsFile function that processes untrusted path inputs without sanitization, and this function is accessible via network or external input, the environment is affected by this path traversal vulnerability.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement strict path validation in __saveResultsFile to ensure paths resolve within an allowed directory, reject paths containing traversal sequences (../), and normalize paths before writing.

Fix this in Certification Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,080
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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-2018-10870 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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