CVE-2023-3972 - CVE House
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Status published High CVE-2023-3972

Insights-client: unsafe handling of temporary files and directories

Vulnerability 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).

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

The following person or organization is credited with identifying this vulnerability, as recorded in the NVD database:

  • This issue was discovered by Alasdair Kergon (Red Hat) and Pavel Odvody (Red Hat).

References

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Affected Vendor

Affected Software

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 Update Services for SAP Solutions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Advanced Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Telecommunications Update Service, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Telecommunications Update Service, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Extended Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Vulnerable Versions:
0:3.1.9-1.el7_9, 0:3.2.2-1.el8_8, 0:3.2.3-1.el8_1, 0:3.2.3-1.el8_2, 0:3.2.3-1.el8_4, 0:3.2.2-1.el8_6, 0:3.2.2-1.el9_2, 0:3.2.2-1.el9_0

Timeline

Official Publish: November 1st, 2023
Last Modified: April 6th, 2026
Added to House: July 22nd, 2026

CVSS Vectors

V3: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-379

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

No associated TTPs found for this vulnerability.