CVE-2024-9050

Networkmanager-libreswan: local privilege escalation via leftupdown

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: October 22, 2024 at 12:14 PM UTC
Updated: June 27, 2026 at 11:41 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorEnterprise Linux

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.5%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A flaw was found in the libreswan client plugin for NetworkManager (NetkworkManager-libreswan), where it fails to properly sanitize the VPN configuration from the local unprivileged user. In this configuration, composed by a key-value format, the plugin fails to escape special characters, leading the application to interpret values as keys. One of the most critical parameters that could be abused by a malicious user is the `leftupdown`key. This key takes an executable command as a value and is used to specify what executes as a callback in NetworkManager-libreswan to retrieve configuration settings back to NetworkManager. As NetworkManager uses Polkit to allow an unprivileged user to control the system's network configuration, a malicious actor could achieve local privilege escalation and potential code execution as root in the targeted machine by creating a malicious configuration.

Affected

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

Vendor states this is fixed in 0:1.2.10-6.el8_2 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:1.2.10-6.el8_4 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:1.2.10-6.el8_6 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:1.2.10-6.el8_8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:1.2.10-7.el8_10 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:1.2.14-3.el9_0 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:1.2.14-6.el9_2 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:1.2.18-6.el9_4 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:1.2.22-4.el9_5 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:1.2.4-4.el7_9 (unaffected)

References (16)

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

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-94

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