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Insights ClientApplication · Redhat

CVE-2023-3972

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-11-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.2.2 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click Patch available

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
A vulnerability was found in insights-client. This security issue occurs because of insecure file operations or unsafe handling of temporary files and directories that lead to local privilege escalation. Before the insights-client has been registered on the system by root, an unprivileged local user or attacker could create the /var/tmp/insights-client directory (owning the directory with read, write, and execute permissions) on the system. After the insights-client is registered by root, an attacker could then control the directory content that insights are using by putting malicious scripts into it and executing arbitrary code as root (trivially bypassing SELinux protections because insights processes are allowed to disable SELinux system-wide).

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

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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
Insights ClientApplication
Affected:< 3.2.2
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 7.0= 8.0= 9.0
Enterprise Linux AusOperating system
Affected:= 8.6
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
Enterprise Linux EusOperating system
Affected:= 8.6= 8.8= 9.0= 9.2
Enterprise Linux For Arm 64Operating system
Affected:= 8.0
Enterprise Linux For Arm 64 EusOperating system
Affected:= 8.6= 8.8= 9.0= 9.2
Enterprise Linux For Ibm Z SystemsOperating system
Affected:= 7.0= 8.0= 9.0

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.2.2 or later
Fixed in 3.2.2
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Insights Client 3.2.2

  1. Update the insights-client package to version 3.2.2 or later using the appropriate package manager for your Enterprise Linux distribution (e.g., yum update insights-client or dnf update insights-client)
  2. Verify the installed version is 3.2.2 or higher by running: rpm -q insights-client
  3. Ensure the /var/tmp/insights-client directory is owned by root with appropriate permissions (755) after the update

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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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-2023-3972 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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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
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