Cupsd Listen arbitrary chmod 0140777
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 14 fixed, 2 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
OpenPrinting CUPS is an open source printing system for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. In versions 2.4.8 and earlier, when starting the cupsd server with a Listen configuration item pointing to a symbolic link, the cupsd process can be caused to perform an arbitrary chmod of the provided argument, providing world-writable access to the target. Given that cupsd is often running as root, this can result in the change of permission of any user or system files to be world writable. Given the aforementioned Ubuntu AppArmor context, on such systems this vulnerability is limited to those files modifiable by the cupsd process. In that specific case it was found to be possible to turn the configuration of the Listen argument into full control over the cupsd.conf and cups-files.conf configuration files. By later setting the User and Group arguments in cups-files.conf, and printing with a printer configured by PPD with a `FoomaticRIPCommandLine` argument, arbitrary user and group (not root) command execution could be achieved, which can further be used on Ubuntu systems to achieve full root command execution. Commit ff1f8a623e090dee8a8aadf12a6a4b25efac143d contains a patch for the issue.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenPrinting | cups | up to 2.4.8 | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- cups VendorOpenPrinting Affected up to 2.4.8 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 2
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:openprinting:cups:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | up to 2.4.8 | Vulnerable | OpenPrinting |
| cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 10.0 | Vulnerable | Debian |
- cpe:2.3:a:openprinting:cups:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions up to 2.4.8 Vulnerable ·OpenPrinting
- cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 10.0 Vulnerable ·Debian
Remediation
Red Hat 5 advisories
- RHSA-2024:5644 Released 2024-08-20 · Red Hat rating Moderatecups security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v.9.2) cups-1:2.3.3op2-16.el9_2.2, cups-client-1:2.3.3op2-16.el9_2.2, cups-devel-1:2.3.3op2-16.el9_2.2 +4
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.9.2) cups-1:2.3.3op2-16.el9_2.2, cups-libs-1:2.3.3op2-16.el9_2.2
- RHSA-2024:4715 Released 2024-07-24 · Red Hat rating Moderatecups security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream AUS (v.8.6) cups-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5, cups-client-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5, cups-devel-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5 +3
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v.8.6) cups-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5, cups-client-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5, cups-devel-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5 +3
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream TUS (v.8.6) cups-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5, cups-client-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5, cups-devel-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5 +3
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS AUS (v.8.6) cups-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5, cups-libs-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS E4S (v.8.6) cups-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5, cups-libs-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS TUS (v.8.6) cups-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5, cups-libs-1:2.2.6-45.el8_6.5
- RHSA-2024:4776 Released 2024-07-23 · Red Hat rating Moderatecups security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) cups-1:2.3.3op2-27.el9_4, cups-client-1:2.3.3op2-27.el9_4, cups-devel-1:2.3.3op2-27.el9_4 +4
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) cups-1:2.3.3op2-27.el9_4, cups-libs-1:2.3.3op2-27.el9_4
Show 2 more Red Hat advisories
- RHSA-2024:4580 Released 2024-07-16 · Red Hat rating Moderatecups security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v.8.8) cups-1:2.2.6-51.el8_8.4, cups-client-1:2.2.6-51.el8_8.4, cups-devel-1:2.2.6-51.el8_8.4 +3
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.8.8) cups-1:2.2.6-51.el8_8.4, cups-libs-1:2.2.6-51.el8_8.4
- RHSA-2024:4265 Released 2024-07-02 · Red Hat rating Moderatecups security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) cups-1:2.2.6-60.el8_10, cups-client-1:2.2.6-60.el8_10, cups-devel-1:2.2.6-60.el8_10 +3
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) cups-1:2.2.6-60.el8_10, cups-libs-1:2.2.6-60.el8_10
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4265 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4776 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream AUS (v.8.6) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4715 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v.8.6) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4715 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v.8.8) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4580 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v.9.2) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:5644 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream TUS (v.8.6) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4715 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4265 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4776 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS AUS (v.8.6) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4715 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS E4S (v.8.6) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4715 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.8.8) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4580 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.9.2) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:5644 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS TUS (v.8.6) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:4715 |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2024-35235
References
Exploit 2
Other 5
- https://git.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/tree/profiles/apparmor.d/abstractions/user-tmp#n21
- https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cups/blob/aba917003c8de55e5bf85010f0ecf1f1ddd1408e/cups/http-addr.c#L229-L240
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/06/12/4
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/06/12/5
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/06/msg00001.html
More OpenPrinting Cups vulnerabilities
- TI-2025-35903 cups has Authentication bypass with AuthType Negotiate CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.0
- TI-2023-17077 CUPS vulnerable to use-after-free in cupsdAcceptClient() CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.1
- TI-2026-27200 Path traversal in OpenPrinting cups CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
- TI-2023-04157 OpenPrinting CUPS/libppd Postscript Parsing Heap Overflow CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.0
- TI-2026-74874 Path traversal in OpenPrinting CUPS banner handling discloses files CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
- TI-2026-27201 OpenPrinting CUPS: Heap overflow in `get_options()` CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
Sources
- CVE-2024-35235 · CVE Program
- CVE-2024-35235 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- CVE-2024-35235 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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