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CVE-2018-6954

25
FAUCET Score

CVE-2018-6954 describes a local privilege escalation vulnerability in systemd-tmpfiles, affecting systemd versions through 237, including various Canonical and openSUSE distributions. An attacker can exploit this by manipulating symlinks in non-terminal path components, allowing them to gain ownership of arbitrary files, even with fs.protected_symlinks enabled. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 7.8 (High), indicating a low attack complexity and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Currently, there is no public exploit code available (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), it is not listed in the KEV catalog, and there is no significant community discussion or media coverage surrounding it.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 237CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:systemd_project:systemd:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
16.04CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
18.04CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
18.10CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
42.3CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:42.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

7.8HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
1.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
0.53%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
41.6%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0053 is in the 81st percentile among its peer group of 17,070 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.2 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (2)

github_advisorypatch availablevia nvd_reference
View patch
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: systemd

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2018-6954Moderate

systemd: Mishandled symlinks in systemd-tmpfiles allows local users to obtain ownership of arbitrary files

Jan 25, 2018

References

lists.opensuse.org / opensuse-security-announce/2019-05/msg00062.html
Third Party Advisory
github.com / systemd/systemd/issues/7986
ExploitIssue TrackingPatchThird Party Advisory
lists.apache.org / thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
lists.apache.org / thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
usn.ubuntu.com / 3816-1
Third Party Advisory
usn.ubuntu.com / 3816-2
Third Party Advisory