No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2024-48991

Q: Is CVE-2024-48991 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2024-48991 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 6.1% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Q: What is the CVSS score for CVE-2024-48991?

CVE-2024-48991 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

Published2024-11-19
Fixed in3.8
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

Qualys discovered that needrestart, before version 3.8, allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code as root by winning a race condition and tricking needrestart into running their own, fake Python interpreter (instead of the system's real Python interpreter). The initial security fix (6ce6136) introduced a regression which was subsequently resolved (42af5d3).

Timeline

dates in UTC

2024-11-1918:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 18:48 UTC

Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days

Block these indicators

Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2024-48991?format=txt
CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2024-48991?format=csv
TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD · CISA-ADP

Needrestart project needrestart

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
3.8	< 3.8	3.8	NVD · CISA-ADP

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

Fix

Update Needrestart project needrestart to 3.8

Advisories and patches

github.comPatch
github.comPatch

Detection

Nuclei template: none so far
Exploit-DB: no entry
Proof-of-concept repositories: none listed

Sources

NVDCVE recordread 2026-10-23
CISA-ADPSSVC decisionnone2024-11-19
OpenCVESSVC decisionnone—
CNACVSS 3.17.8read 2026-10-23
CISA-ADPweakness (CWE)CWE-3622024-11-19
FIRST EPSSEPSS score6.1 %2026-10-22

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published: 2024-11-19
Last Modified: 2026-06-17
NVD status: Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2024-48991?

Is CVE-2024-48991 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2024-48991 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 6.1% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2024-48991?

CVE-2024-48991 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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