CVE-2023-3972

Insights-client: unsafe handling of temporary files and directories

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: November 1, 2023 at 03:54 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:15 AM UTC
19 products affected across 1 vendorEnterprise LinuxEnterprise Linux DesktopEnterprise Linux Server

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.3%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A vulnerability was found in insights-client. This security issue occurs because of insecure file operations or unsafe handling of temporary files and directories that lead to local privilege escalation. Before the insights-client has been registered on the system by root, an unprivileged local user or attacker could create the /var/tmp/insights-client directory (owning the directory with read, write, and execute permissions) on the system. After the insights-client is registered by root, an attacker could then control the directory content that insights are using by putting malicious scripts into it and executing arbitrary code as root (trivially bypassing SELinux protections because insights processes are allowed to disable SELinux system-wide).

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

Vendor states this is fixed in 0:3.1.9-1.el7_9 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:3.2.2-1.el8_6 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:3.2.2-1.el8_8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:3.2.2-1.el9_0 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:3.2.2-1.el9_2 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:3.2.3-1.el8_2 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:3.2.3-1.el8_4 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6 (unknown)

References (11)

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.8HIGHredhat
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-379CWE-668

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