# CVE-2016-8641: Privilege escalation in nagios

> Local attackers can escalate privileges by exploiting insecure file ownership changes during daemon initialization via symbolic link attacks.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.7 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 Aug 2018
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-xh33-x4fq-3r2h

## What is CVE-2016-8641?

CVE-2016-8641 is a medium-severity vulnerability in nagios, published on 1 Aug 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

A privilege escalation vulnerability was found in nagios 4.2.x that occurs in daemon-init.in when creating necessary files and insecurely changing the ownership afterwards. It's possible for the local attacker to create symbolic links before the files are to be created and possibly escalating the privileges with the ownership change.

Weakness: CWE-59 (Improper Link Resolution Before File Access)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-8641?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Nagios Nagios.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-8641?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2016-8641 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2016-8641 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Nagios 4.2.2 - Local Privilege Escalation (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in nagios

- [CVE-2002-1959](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-1959/): Command injection in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2016-0726](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-0726/): Hardcoded credentials in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2008-7313](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-7313/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2014-5009](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-5009/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-9565](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9565/): Path traversal in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-8641 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-8641 is a medium-severity vulnerability in nagios, published on 1 Aug 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2016-8641 exists.

Affected product: nagios. 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-2016-8641/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8641/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-8641
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-8641
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-8641

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8641/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.