A race condition in the nginx module in Phusion Passenger 3.x through 5.x before 5.3.2…
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.0 · NVD. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat.
Summary
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.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | all versions | — | No fix listed | CNA |
| — | passenger (RubyGems) | 3.0.0 to before 5.3.2 | 5.3.2 | Patch available | GHSA-jjcj-fgfm-9g9r |
- — Vendor— Affected all versions Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
- passenger (RubyGems) Vendor— Affected 3.0.0 to before 5.3.2 Fixed in 5.3.2 Patch available GHSA-jjcj-fgfm-9g9r
Remediation
- Fix · GHSA-jjcj-fgfm-9g9r passenger (RubyGems) Fixed in 5.3.2 Advisory →
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ceph Storage 1.3 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
Not affected: 2 products
- Red Hat Satellite 6
- Red Hat Update Infrastructure 3 for Cloud Providers
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2018-12029
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-jjcj-fgfm-9g9r
References
Advisory 5
Sources
- CVE-2018-12029 · CVE Program
- CVE-2018-12029 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-jjcj-fgfm-9g9r · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2018-12029 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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