How severe is CVE-2019-13272?

CVE-2019-13272 has a CVSS score of 7.8/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2019-13272?

Affected package information for CVE-2019-13272 is not yet fully mapped. Check the official advisory links for details.

How do I fix CVE-2019-13272?

No fixed version has been published for CVE-2019-13272 yet. Monitor the advisory for updates, apply mitigations recommended by the vendor, and use O3 Security to track when a fix becomes available in your stack.

Is CVE-2019-13272 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 21 known exploit references for CVE-2019-13272, including 4 documented proof-of-concept exploits on Exploit-DB and 12 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2019-13272?

CVE-2019-13272 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 80.4%, placing it in the 99th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2019-13272 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2019-13272 (Linux Kernel Improper Privilege Management Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2021-12-10. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-06-10. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

When was CVE-2019-13272 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2019-13272 was published on July 17, 2019 and was last updated on April 11, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CISA KEV·Added 2021-12-10 — agencies required to remediate by 2022-06-10

CVE-2019-13272

HIGH

Published

Jul 17, 2019

Updated

Apr 11, 2026

Affected

0 pkgs

Patched

None yet

Exploits

21 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

80.4%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk99th percentile0.00%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Description

In the Linux kernel before 5.1.17, ptrace_link in kernel/ptrace.c mishandles the recording of the credentials of a process that wants to create a ptrace relationship, which allows local users to obtain root access by leveraging certain scenarios with a parent-child process relationship, where a parent drops privileges and calls execve (potentially allowing control by an attacker). One contributing factor is an object lifetime issue (which can also cause a panic). Another contributing factor is incorrect marking of a ptrace relationship as privileged, which is exploitable through (for example) Polkit's pkexec helper with PTRACE_TRACEME. NOTE: SELinux deny_ptrace might be a usable workaround in some environments.

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

EDB-47163locallinux

Linux Kernel 4.10 < 5.1.17 - 'PTRACE_TRACEME' pkexec Local Privilege Escalation

by bcoles · Jul 24, 2019

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-50541locallinux

Linux Kernel 5.1.x - 'PTRACE_TRACEME' pkexec Local Privilege Escalation (2)

by Ujas Dhami · Nov 23, 2021

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-47133locallinux✓ Verified

Linux - Broken Permission and Object Lifetime Handling for PTRACE_TRACEME

by Google Security Research · Jul 17, 2019

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-47543locallinux✓ Verified

Linux Polkit - pkexec helper PTRACE_TRACEME local root (Metasploit)

by Metasploit · Oct 24, 2019

Exploit-DB Source

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2019-13272 in your stack?

O3 detects CVE-2019-13272 across dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

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