# CVE-2018-6597: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Attackers with physical access can exploit a hidden root shell mechanism via ADB to execute arbitrary commands as root on Alcatel A30 devices.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 29 Aug 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-g38m-568m-fp7q

## What is CVE-2018-6597?

CVE-2018-6597 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 29 Aug 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Alcatel A30 device with a build fingerprint of TCL/5046G/MICKEY6US:7.0/NRD90M/J63:user/release-keys contains a hidden privilege escalation capability to achieve command execution as the root user. They have made modifications that allow a user with physical access to the device to obtain a root shell via ADB. Modifying the read-only properties by an app as the system user creates a UNIX domain socket named factory_test that will execute commands as the root user by processes that have privilege to access it (as per the SELinux rules that the vendor controls).

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-6597?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Alcatel A30 Firmware.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-6597?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-6597 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-6597 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-6597 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-6597 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-6597 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 29 Aug 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-2018-6597 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2018-6597/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6597/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-6597
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-6597
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-6597

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6597/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.