SOC status:Duty analyst on shift

UK Cyber Defence
VulnerabilityModified

CVE-2018-16888

User field set in the service file), a local attacker who is able to write to the PIDFile of the mentioned service may use this flaw to trick systemd into killing other services and/or privileged processes.

MEDIUM 4.7EPSS 0.29%

Does this matter?

Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.29%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.

Description

It was discovered systemd does not correctly check the content of PIDFile files before using it to kill processes. When a service is run from an unprivileged user (e.g. User field set in the service file), a local attacker who is able to write to the PIDFile of the mentioned service may use this flaw to trick systemd into killing other services and/or privileged processes. Versions before v237 are vulnerable.

CVSS 3.1
4.7 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS
0.29% probability · 22th percentile
Public exploits
None in Exploit-DB
CISA KEV
Not listed
Weakness
CWE-250, CWE-269
Affected
systemd project/systemd · canonical/ubuntu linux · redhat/enterprise linux · netapp/active iq performance analytics services · netapp/element software
Source
secalert@redhat.com
EPSS trend
0%3%5%27 October 2026: 0.29%27 October 202627 October 2026

EPSS 0.3% since 27 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.

References

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.