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TizenOperating system · Linux

CVE-2018-16262

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-01-22
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
93/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
The pkgmgr system service in Tizen allows an unprivileged process to perform package management actions, due to improper D-Bus security policy configurations. Such actions include installing, decrypting, and killing other packages. This affects Tizen before 5.0 M1, and Tizen-based firmwares including Samsung Galaxy Gear series before build RE2.

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

The pkgmgr system service in Tizen contains improper D-Bus security policy configurations that allow unprivileged processes to perform sensitive package management operations including installing, decrypting, and killing other packages. This D-Bus policy misconfiguration enables privilege escalation by permitting any process to invoke privileged pkgmgr methods without proper authentication or authorization checks.

MitigationCorrect the D-Bus security policy configuration files for pkgmgr to restrict access to only properly authenticated and authorized system components; implement proper permission checks for sensitive package management operations.

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
TizenOperating system
Affected:= 1.0= 2.0= 2.1= 2.2= 2.2.1= 2.3= 2.3.1= 2.4= 3.0= 4.0= 5.0

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/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. Confirm Tizen installation
    Check if the system is running a Tizen distribution by examining /etc/os-release or running 'cat /etc/issue' to identify the OS
    Affected if The system is running any Tizen version from 1.0 to 5.0 as listed in the affected versions
  2. Locate pkgmgr D-Bus service file
    Search for D-Bus service configuration files related to pkgmgr, typically found in /usr/share/dbus-1/services/ or /etc/dbus-1/system.d/ directories
    Affected if A pkgmgr D-Bus service file exists on the system
  3. Examine pkgmgr D-Bus policy configuration
    Open and inspect the D-Bus policy configuration files for pkgmgr, looking for <policy> sections that define access rules
    Affected if The policy files contain <policy> elements without proper 'user' or 'group' restrictions, or allow 'send_destination' to any caller
  4. Check for overly permissive access rules
    Review policy rules that permit 'interface' or 'method' access without authentication; look for rules with 'user="root"' missing or absent, or rules with 'at_console="true"' allowing console users
    Affected if Policies permit unprivileged or unauthenticated callers to invoke privileged pkgmgr methods
  5. Verify authorization enforcement
    Examine whether the D-Bus policy enforces proper authentication by checking for 'requires_owner's or similar authorization constraints in the policy rules
    Affected if No proper authentication or authorization constraints are found in the pkgmgr D-Bus policy configuration

A system is affected if it runs Tizen version 1.0 through 5.0 AND has D-Bus policy configuration files for pkgmgr that permit unprivileged or unauthenticated processes to invoke sensitive package management methods.

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

Correct the D-Bus security policy configuration files for pkgmgr to restrict access to only properly authenticated and authorized system components; implement proper permission checks for sensitive package management operations.

Fix this in Tizen Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,980
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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-2018-16262 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
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