CVE-2019-18932
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 · uneditedlog.c in Squid Analysis Report Generator (sarg) through 2.3.11 allows local privilege escalation. By default, it uses a fixed temporary directory /tmp/sarg. As the root user, sarg creates this directory or reuses an existing one in an insecure manner. An attacker can pre-create the directory, and place symlinks in it (after winning a /tmp/sarg/denied.int_unsort race condition). The outcome will be corrupted or newly created files in privileged file system locations.
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 confidencesarg versions through 2.3.11 use a fixed temporary directory /tmp/sarg created insecurely when run as root. An attacker can pre-create this directory and exploit a race condition (specifically /tmp/sarg/denied.int_unsort) to place symlinks, allowing creation or corruption of files in privileged filesystem locations.
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<= 2.3.11= 15.0= 15.1CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if sarg is installedRun 'which sarg' or check package manager: 'dpkg -l | grep sarg' (Debian/Ubuntu) or 'rpm -qa | grep sarg' (RHEL/SUSE)Affected if sarg is present on the system
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Determine installed sarg versionRun 'sarg --version' or 'sarg -v' to get the exact version numberAffected if Version is 2.3.11 or lower
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Check for /tmp/sarg directory existenceRun 'ls -la /tmp/sarg' to see if the directory exists and who owns itAffected if Directory /tmp/sarg exists and is owned by root or a privileged user
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Verify sarg execution contextCheck if sarg is run as root or via cron by a root user: examine /etc/cron.d/sarg or equivalent cron files, and check file ownership of sarg config and output directoriesAffected if sarg is executed as root or by root cron jobs
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Check for pre-created /tmp/sarg directoryInspect /tmp/sarg for unexpected ownership or permissions: 'stat /tmp/sarg' and review any files or symlinks within itAffected if Directory /tmp/sarg exists before sarg has been run, or contains unexpected files/symlinks
A system is affected if sarg version 2.3.11 or lower is installed and executes as root while the /tmp/sarg directory exists (particularly if it existed before sarg was run or is owned by a non-root user).
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 dataUpgrade sarg to a version after 2.3.11 which addresses the insecure temporary directory usage, or implement filesystem restrictions and monitoring to detect pre-creation of /tmp/sarg.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-18932 — 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-2019-18932 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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