CVE-2019-13272 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-12-10) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-12-10. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-06-10.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2019-13272.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2019-13272 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
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.
Affected Products
ubuntu linuxcanonicaldebian linuxdebianfedorafedoraprojectlinux kernellinuxactive iq unified managernetappaff a700s firmwarenetappResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Linux Kernel 5.1.x - 'PTRACE_TRACEME' pkexec Local Privilege Escalation (2)
by Ujas Dhami · Nov 23, 2021
Linux - Broken Permission and Object Lifetime Handling for PTRACE_TRACEME
by Google Security Research · Jul 17, 2019
Linux Kernel 4.10 < 5.1.17 - 'PTRACE_TRACEME' pkexec Local Privilege Escalation
by bcoles · Jul 24, 2019
Linux Polkit - pkexec helper PTRACE_TRACEME local root (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Oct 24, 2019
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).
Fix
Upgrade the affected component to the fixed release for CVE-2019-13272, or apply your distribution's backported patch — distro builds are often patched at an older version number, so check your vendor's advisory rather than the upstream version alone.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Red Hat Product Security is aware of this issue. Updates will be released as they become available. For additional information, please refer to the Red Hat Knowledgebase article: https://access.redhat.com/articles/4292201
For mitigation, please refer to the Red Hat Knowledgebase article: https://access.redhat.com/articles/4292201Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2019-13272 (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | kernel-alt-0:4.14.0-115.12.1.el7a | RHSA-2019:2809 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | kernel-rt-0:4.18.0-80.7.2.rt9.154.el8_0 | RHSA-2019:2405 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | kernel-0:4.18.0-80.7.2.el8_0 | RHSA-2019:2411 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2019-13272 in your dependencies?
Find it across , including transitive dependencies.