CVE-2018-12028
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 · uneditedAn Incorrect Access Control vulnerability in SpawningKit in Phusion Passenger 5.3.x before 5.3.2 allows a Passenger-managed malicious application, upon spawning a child process, to report an arbitrary different PID back to Passenger's process manager. If the malicious application then generates an error, it would cause Passenger's process manager to kill said reported arbitrary PID.
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 confidenceIn Phusion Passenger's SpawningKit component, a malicious managed application can spoof the PID it reports back to Passenger's process manager. When the application triggers an error, Passenger incorrectly terminates the spoofed PID (which could be an unrelated process) instead of the actual child process.
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>= 5.3.0, < 5.3.2CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Find installed Passenger versionRun `passenger --version` or check via package manager (e.g., `dpkg -l | grep passenger`, `rpm -qa | grep passenger`)Affected if Version is displayed as 5.3.0 or 5.3.1 (falls in range >= 5.3.0, < 5.3.2)
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Confirm version is in affected rangeCompare the installed version number against the vulnerable range: >= 5.3.0 and < 5.3.2Affected if Installed version is 5.3.0 or 5.3.1
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Verify SpawningKit is in useCheck Passenger configuration or inspect spawning method used for managed applications. SpawningKit handles spawning for Ruby, Python, Node.js, and Meteor apps. Look for `PassengerSpawnMethod` directive or app type configuration.Affected if Applications are spawned using SpawningKit (default spawn method for most app types)
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Check for application control over PID reportingAudit managed applications to determine if they have the ability to influence or spoof the PID they report back to the Passenger process manager during spawn errorsAffected if Untrusted or third-party applications are running as managed Passenger apps and could manipulate PID reporting
Environment is affected if Phusion Passenger version is 5.3.0 or 5.3.1 AND SpawningKit is used to spawn applications that could spoof PIDs.
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 data5.3.2
Upgrade Phusion Passenger to version 5.3.2 or later to obtain the patched SpawningKit component that validates reported PIDs.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-12028 — 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-2018-12028 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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