Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2017-18018

medium Nessus Plugin ID 221095

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- In GNU Coreutils through 8.29, chown-core.c in chown and chgrp does not prevent replacement of a plain file with a symlink during use of the POSIX -R -L options, which allows local users to modify the ownership of arbitrary files by leveraging a race condition. (CVE-2017-18018)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 221095

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2017_18018.nasl

Version: 1.2

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/4/2025

Updated: 8/18/2025

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Low

Base Score: 1.9

Temporal Score: 1.5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2017-18018

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.7

Temporal Score: 4.2

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, cpe:/o:centos:centos:7, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:coreutils, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:coreutils, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:4, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:coreutils, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:14.0, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:coreutils, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0

Required KB Items: Host/OS/identifier, Host/cpu, Host/local_checks_enabled, global_settings/vendor_unpatched

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/4/2018

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2017-18018

Detections

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