CVE-2017-18018 Race condition in n/a

High 7.1 Published 4 Jan 2018 Updated 9 Jun 2025

Local attackers can exploit a race condition in chown/chgrp to modify ownership of arbitrary files, potentially leading to privilege escalation.

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-2017-18018?

CVE-2017-18018 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 4 Jan 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In GNU Coreutils through 8.29, chown-core.c in chown and chgrp does not prevent replacement of a plain file with a symlink during use of the POSIX "-R -L" options, which allows local users to modify the ownership of arbitrary files by leveraging a race condition.

Weakness: CWE-362

Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-18018?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Gnu Coreutils.

How do I fix CVE-2017-18018?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2017-18018 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2017-18018 exists.

Sources

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2017-18018, DEBIAN-CVE-2017-18018, UBUNTU-CVE-2017-18018.