# CVE-2024-5290: Privilege escalation in wpa supplicant

> Local unprivileged attackers can escalate privileges to root by loading arbitrary shared objects via wpa_supplicant on Ubuntu systems.

- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Updated:** 18 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-5290, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-5290, DSA-5739-1, GHSA-c2m5-cmpw-rjcx, OESA-2024-2142, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-5290, USN-6945-1

## What is CVE-2024-5290?

CVE-2024-5290 is a high-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ltd. wpa_supplicant, published on 7 Aug 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in Ubuntu wpa_supplicant that resulted in loading of arbitrary shared objects, which allows a local unprivileged attacker to escalate privileges to the user that wpa_supplicant runs as (usually root).

Membership in the netdev group or access to the dbus interface of wpa_supplicant allow an unprivileged user to specify an arbitrary path to a module to be loaded by the wpa_supplicant process; other escalation paths might exist.

Weakness: CWE-427 (Uncontrolled Search Path Element)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-5290?

It affects 1 product.


Products: W1.fi Wpa Supplicant.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-5290?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-5290 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2024-5290 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ltd. wpa_supplicant

- [CVE-2015-0210](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-0210/): Security feature bypass in n/a (medium 5.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-5290 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-5290 is a high-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ltd. wpa_supplicant, published on 7 Aug 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2024-5290 exists.

Affected product: Canonical Ltd. wpa_supplicant. 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-2024-5290/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-5290/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-5290
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-5290
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-5290

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-5290/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.