# CVE-2015-0278: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Attackers can gain elevated privileges due to improper group privilege dropping in the libuv library.

- **Severity:** Critical 10.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Not stated
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 May 2015
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-hmvq-6hjm-q8hj, MGASA-2015-0186

## What is CVE-2015-0278?

CVE-2015-0278 is a critical vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 18 May 2015. 

### Official description

libuv before 0.10.34 does not properly drop group privileges, which allows context-dependent attackers to gain privileges via unspecified vectors.

Weakness: CWE-273 (Improper Check for Dropped Privileges)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-0278?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Fedoraproject Fedora, Libuv Project Libuv, Nodejs Node.js.

## How do I fix CVE-2015-0278?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2015-0278 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-0278 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Fedoraproject Fedora

- [CVE-2024-4577](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4577/): PHP-CGI OS Command Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-39226](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39226/): Grafana Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-5544](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5544/): VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS OpenSLP Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-4947](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4947/): Google Chromium V8 Type Confusion (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-4671](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4671/): Google Chromium Visuals Use-After-Free (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2015-0278 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2015-0278 is a critical vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 18 May 2015. 
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-0278 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Fedoraproject Fedora. 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-2015-0278/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-0278/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-0278
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-0278
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2015-0278

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-0278/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.