# CVE-2018-6552: Apport treats the container PID as the global PID when /proc/<global_pid>/ is missing

> Local attackers can exploit Apport's PID namespace handling to create root-owned files, leading to privilege escalation or container escape.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 31 May 2018
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4pgc-f487-53cr, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-6552, USN-3664-1, USN-3664-2

## What is CVE-2018-6552?

CVE-2018-6552 is a high-severity vulnerability in Apport, published on 31 May 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Apport 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, possibly gain root privileges, or escape from containers. The is_same_ns() function returns True when /proc/<global pid>/ does not exist in order to indicate that the crash should be handled in the global namespace rather than inside of a container. However, the portion of the data/apport code that decides whether or not to forward a crash to a container does not always replace sys.argv[1] with the value stored in the host_pid variable when /proc/<global pid>/ does not exist which results in the container pid being used in the global namespace. This flaw affects versions 2.20.8-0ubuntu4 through 2.20.9-0ubuntu7, 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.7, 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.8, 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.15 through 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.17, and 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.28.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-6552?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Apport Project Apport.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-6552?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2018-6552 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-6552 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Apport

- [CVE-2022-28657](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-28657/): Denial of service in Apport (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-14177](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-14177/): Privilege escalation in Apport (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-14179](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-14179/): Privilege escalation in Apport (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-14180](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-14180/): Privilege escalation in Apport (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-10708](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-10708/): Path traversal in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-6552 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-6552 is a high-severity vulnerability in Apport, published on 31 May 2018. 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-2018-6552 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Apport. 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-2018-6552/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6552/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-6552
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-6552
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-6552

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6552/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.