# CVE-2011-2777: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can escalate privileges by exploiting improper pidof usage in the acpid power button script.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.4 (`AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 29 Aug 2012
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2011-2777, GHSA-v38r-g9qq-wg8m

## What is CVE-2011-2777?

CVE-2011-2777 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 29 Aug 2012. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

samples/powerbtn/powerbtn.sh in acpid (aka acpid2) 2.0.16 and earlier uses the pidof program incorrectly, which allows local users to gain privileges by running a program with the name kded4 and a DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS environment variable containing commands.

Weakness: CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2011-2777?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Tedfelix Acpid2.

## How do I fix CVE-2011-2777?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2011-2777 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-2777 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- Acpid 1:2.0.10-1ubuntu2 (Ubuntu 11.04/11.10) - Boundary Crossing Privilege Escalation (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2011-4578](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-4578/): Misconfiguration in n/a (medium 4.6)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2011-2777 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2011-2777 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 29 Aug 2012. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-2777 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-2777/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-2777/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2011-2777
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2011-2777
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2011-2777

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-2777/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.