CVE-2017-14180 Privilege escalation in Apport

High 7.8 Published 2 Feb 2018 Updated 3 Nov 2025

Local attackers can exploit Apport's PID namespace handling to create root-owned files, leading to privilege escalation or denial of service.

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

What is CVE-2017-14180?

CVE-2017-14180 is a high-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 2 Feb 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Apport 2.13 through 2.20.7 does not properly handle crashes originating from a PID namespace allowing local users to create certain files as root which an attacker could leverage to perform a denial of service via resource exhaustion or possibly gain root privileges, a different vulnerability than CVE-2017-14179.

Weakness: CWE-400

Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-14180?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Apport Project Apport, Canonical Ubuntu Linux.

How do I fix CVE-2017-14180?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2017-14180 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-14180 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Canonical Ubuntu Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-q2pm-6838-p3jm, UBUNTU-CVE-2017-14180.