CVE-2025-4598

Systemd-coredump: race condition that allows a local attacker to crash a suid program and gain read access to the resulting core dump

Description

A vulnerability was found in systemd-coredump. This flaw allows an attacker to force a SUID process to crash and replace it with a non-SUID binary to access the original's privileged process coredump, allowing the attacker to read sensitive data, such as /etc/shadow content, loaded by the original process. A SUID binary or process has a special type of permission, which allows the process to run with the file owner's permissions, regardless of the user executing the binary. This allows the process to access more restricted data than unprivileged users or processes would be able to. An attacker can leverage this flaw by forcing a SUID process to crash and force the Linux kernel to recycle the process PID before systemd-coredump can analyze the /proc/pid/auxv file. If the attacker wins the race condition, they gain access to the original's SUID process coredump file. They can read sensitive content loaded into memory by the original binary, affecting data confidentiality.

Remediation

Workaround:

  • This issue can be mitigated by disabling the capability of the system to generate a coredump for SUID binaries. The perform that, the following command can be ran as `root` user: ~~~ echo 0 > /proc/sys/fs/suid_dumpable ~~~ While this mitigates this vulnerability while it's not possible to update the systemd package, it disables the capability of analyzing crashes for such binaries.

Category

4.7
CVSS
Severity: Medium
CVSS 3.1 •
EPSS 0.01%
Affected: Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Affected: Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Affected: Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Affected: Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Affected: Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Affected: Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Affected: Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Affected: Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Affected: Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
Affected: Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
Published at:
Updated at:

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of CVE-2025-4598?
CVE-2025-4598 has been scored as a medium severity vulnerability.
How to fix CVE-2025-4598?
As a workaround for remediating CVE-2025-4598: This issue can be mitigated by disabling the capability of the system to generate a coredump for SUID binaries. The perform that, the following command can be ran as `root` user: ~~~ echo 0 > /proc/sys/fs/suid_dumpable ~~~ While this mitigates this vulnerability while it's not possible to update the systemd package, it disables the capability of analyzing crashes for such binaries.
Is CVE-2025-4598 being actively exploited in the wild?
As for now, there are no information to confirm that CVE-2025-4598 is being actively exploited. According to its EPSS score, there is a ~0% probability that this vulnerability will be exploited by malicious actors in the next 30 days.
What software or system is affected by CVE-2025-4598?
CVE-2025-4598 affects Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4, Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.
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