Apport does not properly handle crashes originating from a PID namespace allowing local users to create certain files as root which an attacker could leverage to perform a denial of service via resource exhaustion, possibly gain root privileges, or escape from containers. The issamens() function returns True when /proc/<global pid>/ does not exist in order to indicate that the crash should be handled in the global namespace rather than inside of a container. However, the portion of the data/apport code that decides whether or not to forward a crash to a container does not always replace sys.argv[1] with the value stored in the hostpid variable when /proc/<global pid>/ does not exist which results in the container pid being used in the global namespace. This flaw affects versions 2.20.8-0ubuntu4 through 2.20.9-0ubuntu7, 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.7, 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.8, 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.15 through 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.17, and 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.28.

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 getpidinfo() 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.addprocenviron 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.

Last updated 25 August 2025

The crash reporting feature in Apport 2.13 through 2.17.x before 2.17.1 allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted usr/share/apport/apport file in a namespace (container).

Apport 2.13 through 2.20.7 does not properly handle crashes originating from a PID namespace allowing local users to create certain files as root which an attacker could leverage to perform a denial of service via resource exhaustion or possibly gain root privileges, a different vulnerability than CVE-2017-14179.

isclosingsession() allows users to consume RAM in the Apport process

~/.config/apport/settings parsing is vulnerable to "billion laughs" attack

Apport argument parsing mishandles filename splitting on older kernels resulting in argument spoofing

Apport does not disable python crash handler before entering chroot

isclosingsession() allows users to fill up apport.log

isclosingsession() allows users to create arbitrary tcp dbus connections

Last updated 25 August 2025

Apport creates a world writable lock file with root ownership in the world writable /var/lock/apport directory. If the apport/ directory does not exist (this is not uncommon as /var/lock is a tmpfs), it will create the directory, otherwise it will simply continue execution using the existing directory. This allows for a symlink attack if an attacker were to create a symlink at /var/lock/apport, changing apport's lock file location. This file could then be used to escalate privileges, for example. Fixed in versions 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.23, 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.14, 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.8 and 2.20.11-0ubuntu22.

Apport before versions 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm1, 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.19, 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.7, 2.20.10-0ubuntu27.1, 2.20.11-0ubuntu5 contained a TOCTTOU vulnerability when reading the users ~/.apport-ignore.xml file, which allows a local attacker to replace this file with a symlink to any other file on the system and so cause Apport to include the contents of this other file in the resulting crash report. The crash report could then be read by that user either by causing it to be uploaded and reported to Launchpad, or by leveraging some other vulnerability to read the resulting crash report, and so allow the user to read arbitrary files on the system.

Kevin Backhouse discovered that apport would read a user-supplied configuration file with elevated privileges. By replacing the file with a symbolic link, a user could get apport to read any file on the system as root, with unknown consequences.

Last updated 25 August 2025

Last updated 25 August 2025

Apport through 2.20.7 does not properly handle core dumps from setuid binaries allowing local users to create certain files as root which an attacker could leverage to perform a denial of service via resource exhaustion or possibly gain root privileges. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2015-1324.

Apport before 2.13 does not properly handle crashes originating from a PID namespace allowing local users to create certain files as root which an attacker could leverage to perform a denial of service via resource exhaustion, possibly gain root privileges, or escape from containers.

kernelcrashdump in Apport before 2.19 allows local users to cause a denial of service (disk consumption) or possibly gain privileges via a (1) symlink or (2) hard link attack on /var/crash/vmcore.log.

An issue was discovered in Apport before 2.20.4. A malicious Apport crash file can contain a restart command in RespawnCommand or ProcCmdline fields. This command will be executed if a user clicks the Relaunch button on the Apport prompt from the malicious crash file. The fix is to only show the Relaunch button on Apport crash files generated by local systems. The Relaunch button will be hidden when crash files are opened directly in Apport-GTK.

An issue was discovered in Apport before 2.20.4. In apport/ui.py, Apport reads the CrashDB field and it then evaluates the field as Python code if it begins with a "{". This allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary Python code.

An issue was discovered in Apport before 2.20.4. There is a path traversal issue in the Apport crash file "Package" and "SourcePackage" fields. These fields are used to build a path to the package specific hook files in the /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/ directory. An attacker can exploit this path traversal to execute arbitrary Python files from the local system.

An issue was discovered in Apport through 2.20.x. In apport/report.py, Apport sets the ExecutablePath field and it then uses the path to run package specific hooks without protecting against path traversal. This allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted .crash file.