High severity · published Nov 4, 2019
CVE-2019-18684
Sudo through 1.8.29 allows local users to escalate to root if they have write access to file descriptor 3 of the sudo process
7.0
CVSS
0.3%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Sudo through 1.8.29 allows local users to escalate to root if they have write access to file descriptor 3 of the sudo process. This occurs because of a race condition between determining a uid, and the setresuid and openat system calls. The attacker can write "ALL ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" to /proc/#####/fd/3 at a time when Sudo is prompting for a password. NOTE: This has been disputed due to the way Linux /proc works. It has been argued that writing to /proc/#####/fd/3 would only be viable if you had permission to write to /etc/sudoers. Even with write permission to /proc/#####/fd/3, it would not help you write to /etc/sudoers
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.3% · higher than 22% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
SU
Sudo · Sudo Project
through 1.8.29 · source: NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-18684
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-18684
Exploit
https://gist.github.com/oxagast/51171aa161074188a11d96cbef884bbd
More from Sudo
7.8
CVE-2025-32463
Sudo Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere Vulnerability
7.8
CVE-2021-3156
Sudo Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
8.8
CVE-2025-32462
Sudo before 1.9.17p1, when used with a sudoers file that specifies a host that is neither the current host nor ALL, allows listed users to execute commands on unintended machines
8.8
CVE-2023-7090
A flaw was found in sudo in the handling of ipa_hostname, where ipa_hostname from /etc/sssd/sssd.conf was not propagated in sudo
8.8
CVE-2019-14287
In Sudo before 1.8.28, an attacker with access to a Runas ALL sudoer account can bypass certain policy blacklists and session PAM modules, and can cause incorrect logging, by…
