🛡️ CVE-2018-12026 — passenger
Description
Phusion Passenger SpawningKit Contains Arbitrary Read/Write Vulnerability
During the spawning of a malicious Passenger-managed application, SpawningKit in Phusion Passenger 5.3.x before 5.3.2 allows such applications to replace key files or directories in the spawning communication directory with symlinks. This then could result in arbitrary reads and writes, which in turn can result in information disclosure and privilege escalation.
How this vulnerability can be exploited
This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.
Weakness class
CVE-2018-12026 is classified as CWE-59: Link Following. The software follows symbolic or hard links without verifying their target, so a planted link can redirect an operation to a sensitive file.
Affected software
CVE-2018-12026 is recorded against 1 package.
- passenger (from 5.3.0 up to 5.3.2)
Timeline and source
Published on 14 May 2022 and last revised on 20 February 2024. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.
References
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
github.com (Web)
blog.phusion.nl (Web)
blog.phusion.nl (Web)
github.com (Package)
github.com (Web)
security.gentoo.org (Web)
Details
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected Packages
| Software | From version | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| passenger | 5.3.0 | 5.3.2 |
References
Similar Threats
- High CVE-2025-26803
- Unknown DEBIAN-CVE-2025-26803
- Unknown UBUNTU-CVE-2025-26803
- High CVE-2018-12029
- Unknown CVE-2017-16355
More CVE 2018 advisories
Browse all of CVE 2018 in the advisory index.
Exploit Protection
Are you running passenger?
CVE-2018-12026 carries CVSS 9.5 Critical rating. BotEraser checks your installation against this and other known CVE records, and blocks IPs associated with exploit activity.
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