{"id":"CVE-2018-12029","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2018-12029","generatedAt":"2026-10-29T02:05:09.027Z","title":"A race condition in the nginx module in Phusion Passenger 3.x through 5.x before 5.3.2 allows local escalation of privileges when a non-standard passenger_instance_registry_dir with insufficiently strict permissions is configured.","description":"A race condition in the nginx module in Phusion Passenger 3.x through 5.x before 5.3.2 allows local escalation of privileges when a non-standard passenger_instance_registry_dir with insufficiently strict permissions is configured. Replacing a file with a symlink after the file was created, but before it was chowned, leads to the target of the link being chowned via the path. Targeting sensitive files such as root's crontab file allows privilege escalation.","published":"2018-06-17T20:29:00.000Z","lastModified":"2026-06-17T01:37:02.000Z","status":"Modified","sourceIdentifier":"cve@mitre.org","cvss":{"version":"3.0","score":7,"severity":"HIGH","vector":"CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"},"cwe":["CWE-362"],"affected":["phusion/passenger","debian/debian linux"],"epss":{"score":0.00274,"percentile":0.19657,"date":"2026-10-27","history":[]},"kev":{"listed":false},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"high","text":"High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.27%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit."},"changes":[],"references":[{"url":"https://blog.phusion.nl/passenger-5-3-2","tags":["Mitigation","Vendor Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/06/msg00007.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://pulsesecurity.co.nz/advisories/phusion-passenger-priv-esc","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201807-02","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://blog.phusion.nl/passenger-5-3-2","tags":["Mitigation","Vendor Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/06/msg00007.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://pulsesecurity.co.nz/advisories/phusion-passenger-priv-esc","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201807-02","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-12029","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}