GHSA-j3hp-pv6v-rgrx is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-862 vulnerability in github.com/juju/juju. 3 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for github.com/juju/juju — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Juju uses a UNIX domain socket without setting appropriate permissions
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-j3hp-pv6v-rgrx plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 376,715 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/juju/jujuReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Juju before 1.25.12, 2.0.x before 2.0.4, and 2.1.x before 2.1.3 uses a UNIX domain socket without setting appropriate permissions, allowing privilege escalation by users on the system to root.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/juju/juju | all versions | 0.0.0-20170524231039-0417178a3c28go get github.com/juju/juju@v0.0.0-20170524231039-0417178a3c28 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Juju-run Agent - Privilege Escalation (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Feb 12, 2018
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/juju/juju, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/juju/juju to 0.0.0-20170524231039-0417178a3c28 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-j3hp-pv6v-rgrx is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-j3hp-pv6v-rgrx can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-j3hp-pv6v-rgrx. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-j3hp-pv6v-rgrx in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-j3hp-pv6v-rgrx across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.