# CVE-2019-11482: Race condition between reading current working directory and writing a core dump

> A local attacker can exploit a race condition in apport to write core dump files to arbitrary directories, potentially overwriting critical system files.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L`)
- **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:** 8 Feb 2020
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-fggm-83vw-5vwq, UBUNTU-CVE-2019-11482

## What is CVE-2019-11482?

CVE-2019-11482 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 8 Feb 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Sander Bos discovered a time of check to time of use (TOCTTOU) vulnerability in apport that allowed a user to cause core files to be written in arbitrary directories.

Weakness: CWE-367 (Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-11482?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Apport Project Apport, Canonical Ubuntu Linux.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-11482?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2019-11482 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-11482 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

- [CVE-2022-28657](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-28657/): Denial of service in Apport (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2018-6552](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6552/): Apport treats the container PID as the global PID when /proc/<global_pid>/ is missing (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)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-11482 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-11482 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 8 Feb 2020. 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-2019-11482 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Canonical Ubuntu Linux. 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-2019-11482/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11482/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-11482
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-11482
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-11482

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11482/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.