CVE-2017-12172

23

FAUCET Score

CVE-2017-12172 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability affecting PostgreSQL versions 10.x and earlier. It allows a database superuser to escalate privileges to root by manipulating log file symbolic links during server startup. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 6.7 (Medium), indicating a high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, with low attack complexity. There is currently no public exploit code available, nor is there evidence of active exploitation or significant community discussion surrounding this CVE.

Impacted Technologies

Vendor	Product	Version(s)	CPE
		9.2CPE matchmatch criteria	cpe:2.3:a:postgresql:postgresql:9.2:::::::*
		9.2.1CPE matchmatch criteria	cpe:2.3:a:postgresql:postgresql:9.2.1:::::::*
		9.2.2CPE matchmatch criteria	cpe:2.3:a:postgresql:postgresql:9.2.2:::::::*
		9.2.3CPE matchmatch criteria	cpe:2.3:a:postgresql:postgresql:9.2.3:::::::*
		9.2.4CPE matchmatch criteria	cpe:2.3:a:postgresql:postgresql:9.2.4:::::::*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

6.7MEDIUM

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

Attack Vector

LOCAL

Attack Complexity

LOW

Privileges Required

HIGH

User Interaction

NONE

Scope

UNCHANGED

Confidentiality Impact

HIGH

Integrity Impact

HIGH

Availability Impact

HIGH

Exploitability Score

0.8

Impact Score

5.9

CvssVersion

3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score

0.59%

Probability of exploitation in next 30 days

EPSS Percentile

44.6%

Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group

As of 2026-07-28

Model: v2026.06.15

This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0059 is in the 93rd percentile among its peer group of 3,720 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.0 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.1 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (23)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: postgresql-0:9.2.23-3.el7_4

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: rh-postgresql94-postgresql-0:9.4.14-2.el6

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: rh-postgresql95-postgresql-0:9.5.9-4.el6

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: rh-postgresql96-postgresql-0:9.6.5-2.el6

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7 EUSFixed in: rh-postgresql94-postgresql-0:9.4.14-2.el6

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7 EUSFixed in: rh-postgresql95-postgresql-0:9.5.9-4.el6

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7 EUSFixed in: rh-postgresql96-postgresql-0:9.6.5-2.el6

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: rh-postgresql94-postgresql-0:9.4.14-2.el7

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: rh-postgresql95-postgresql-0:9.5.9-4.el7

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: rh-postgresql96-postgresql-0:9.6.5-2.el7

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 EUSFixed in: rh-postgresql94-postgresql-0:9.4.14-2.el7

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 EUSFixed in: rh-postgresql95-postgresql-0:9.5.9-4.el7

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 EUSFixed in: rh-postgresql96-postgresql-0:9.6.5-2.el7

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 EUSFixed in: rh-postgresql94-postgresql-0:9.4.14-2.el7

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 EUSFixed in: rh-postgresql95-postgresql-0:9.5.9-4.el7

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 EUSFixed in: rh-postgresql96-postgresql-0:9.6.5-2.el7

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Virtualization Engine 4.2Fixed in: rh-postgresql95-postgresql-0:9.5.9-4.el7

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Virtualization Engine 4.3Fixed in: rh-postgresql95-postgresql-0:9.5.9-4.el7

redhatno patchvia redhat_api

Product: CloudForms Management Engine 5Fixed in: postgresql94

redhatno patchvia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Satellite 5Fixed in: rh-postgresql95-postgresql

redhatend of lifevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: postgresql

redhatend of lifevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: postgresql84

redhatend of lifevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: postgresql

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2017-12172Moderate

postgresql: Start scripts permit database administrator to modify root-owned files

References

access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017:3402

Issue TrackingThird Party Advisory

access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017:3403

Issue TrackingThird Party Advisory

access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017:3404

Issue TrackingThird Party Advisory

access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017:3405

Issue TrackingThird Party Advisory

postgresql.org / about/news/1801

Issue TrackingVendor Advisory

postgresql.org / support/security

Issue TrackingVendor Advisory

securityfocus.com / bid/101949

Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry

securitytracker.com / id/1039752

Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry