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Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2017-18018

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2018-01-04
  • WeaknessCWE-362

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

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.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2018-01-0404:29CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD
Gnu coreutils
BranchAffectedFixed in
8.29≤ 8.29no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • coreutilsUbuntu:18.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • coreutilsUbuntu:16.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • coreutilsUbuntu:14.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • coreutilsMageia:6all versions · fixed in 8.25-3.1.mga6
  • coreutilsDebian:14all versions · no fixed version listed
  • coreutilsDebian:13all versions · no fixed version listed
  • coreutilsDebian:12all versions · no fixed version listed
  • coreutilsCleanStartall versions · fixed in 8.30-r0

18 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Full record on NVD

Fix

No fix published by the sources we read yet. NVD record

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

  • CISA-ADPSSVC decisionpoc2025-06-09
  • CISA-ADPCVSS 3.17.12025-06-09
  • NVDCVSS 3.04.7read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.01.9read 2026-10-23
  • CISA-ADPweakness (CWE)CWE-3622025-06-09
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-362read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score0.3 %2026-11-09
  • OSVaffected packages—

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Published
2018-01-04
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-18018?

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.

Is CVE-2017-18018 actively exploited?

A proof-of-concept exploit exists for CVE-2017-18018, but active exploitation has not been confirmed at this time.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2017-18018?

CVE-2017-18018 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.1 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N.

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Sources for this record