🛡️ CVE-2024-48990 — needrestart

🟠 CVSS 7.8 — High ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-427 NVD
7.8
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Qualys discovered that needrestart, before version 3.8, allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code as root by tricking needrestart into running the Python interpreter with an attacker-controlled PYTHONPATH environment variable.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level 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-2024-48990 is classified as CWE-427: Uncontrolled Search Path Element. A writable directory appears in a search path, so a planted file can be loaded in place of the intended one.

Affected software

CVE-2024-48990 is recorded against 1 package.

  • needrestart (fixed in 3.8)

Timeline and source

Published on 19 November 2024 and last revised on 17 June 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

github.com
www.cve.org
www.qualys.com
seclists.org
lists.debian.org
www.openwall.com

CVE-2024-48990 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity HIGH
CVSS Score 7.8
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE CWE-427
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2024-11-19
Updated 2026-08-11
Modified 2026-06-17

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
needrestart — 3.8

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ⓘ Data Notice: The information presented above has been compiled from publicly available internet sources. Boteraser aggregates this data solely for informational purposes and does not independently classify, evaluate, or endorse any findings about the vulnerabilities listed. The accuracy and completeness of this information is the sole responsibility of the original publishers. Boteraser and its operators accept no liability for any decisions made based on this data.