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).
Workaround:
The product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.
| Link | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-48991 | issue tracking vdb entry |
| https://github.com/liske/needrestart/commit/6ce6136cccc307c6b8a0f8cae12f9a22ac2aad59 | patch |
| https://github.com/liske/needrestart/commit/42af5d328901287a4f79d1f5861ac827a53fd56d | patch |
| https://www.qualys.com/2024/11/19/needrestart/needrestart.txt | third party advisory |
| http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/11/30/4 | mailing list |
| https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/11/19/1 | mailing list |