UNIX symbolic link following in Phusion Passenger - CVE-2017-16355
Published: March 25, 2019
Vulnerability identifier: #VU18066
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 4.8 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2017-16355
CWE-ID: CWE-61
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a local user to gain access to sensitive information.
The vulnerability exists due to a symlink following issue within the agent/Core/SpawningKit/Spawner.h file. A local user can create a specially crafted symbolic link from the REVISION file to an arbitrary file on the system and view contest of arbitrary file through "passenger-status --show=xml" command.
Affected software
Phusion Passenger
passenger (Debian package)
passenger (Debian package)
How to mitigate CVE-2017-16355
Install updates from vendor's website.
Phusion Passenger - update to 5.1.11
passenger (Debian package) - update to 5.0.30-1+deb9u1
passenger (Debian package) - update to 5.0.30-1+deb9u1