# CVE-2019-15790: Apport reads PID files with elevated privileges

> An unprivileged user can read privileged process information via PID recycling to obtain ASLR offsets, aiding exploitation of other vulnerabilities.

- **Severity:** Low 2.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N`)
- **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:** 27 Apr 2020
- **Updated:** 3 Nov 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-mv59-w8cf-g9q7, UBUNTU-CVE-2019-15790

## What is CVE-2019-15790?

CVE-2019-15790 is a low-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 27 Apr 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Apport reads and writes information on a crashed process to /proc/pid with elevated privileges. Apport then determines which user the crashed process belongs to by reading /proc/pid through get_pid_info() in data/apport. An unprivileged user could exploit this to read information about a privileged running process by exploiting PID recycling. This information could then be used to obtain ASLR offsets for a process with an existing memory corruption vulnerability. The initial fix introduced regressions in the Python Apport library due to a missing argument in Report.add_proc_environ in apport/report.py. It also caused an autopkgtest failure when reading /proc/pid and with Python 2 compatibility by reading /proc maps. The initial and subsequent regression fixes are in 2.20.11-0ubuntu16, 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.6, 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.12, 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.22 and 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm3.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management), CWE-250 (Execution with Unnecessary Privileges)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-15790?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Apport Project Apport, Canonical Ubuntu Linux.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-15790?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2019-15790 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-15790 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-2019-15790 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-15790 is a low-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 27 Apr 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-2019-15790 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-2019-15790/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-15790/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-15790
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-15790
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-15790

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-15790/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.