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Fencer Intel
high 7.3

CVE-2017-7500 json

It was found that rpm did not properly handle RPM installations when a destination path was a symbolic link to a directory, possibly changi…

published 2018-08-13 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-16517

cvss
7.3
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 35%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

It was found that rpm did not properly handle RPM installations when a destination path was a symbolic link to a directory, possibly changing ownership and permissions of an arbitrary directory, and RPM files being placed in an arbitrary destination. An attacker, with write access to a directory in which a subdirectory will be installed, could redirect that directory to an arbitrary location and gain root privilege.

Patch / fix

  • rpm rpm 4.13.0.2
  • rpm SLES 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +13 more 4.11.2-16.21.1
  • rpm-python SLES 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +11 more 4.11.2-16.21.1
  • python3-rpm SLES 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +10 more 4.11.2-16.21.1
  • rpm SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3, SLED 12 SP3 +1 more 4.11.2-16.16.1
  • rpm-python SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3, SLED 12 SP3 4.11.2-16.16.1
  • python3-rpm SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3 4.11.2-16.16.1
  • rpm SLE Module for Development Tools 15, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 4.14.1-10.3.1
  • python-rpm SLE Module for Basesystem 15 4.14.1-10.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:3884-2SUSE-SU-2018:3884-1SUSE-SU-2018:3286-1SUSE-SU-2018:2073-1

  • rpm openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.16.1.3-3.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11305-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2017-7500 updated cvss 7.3

rpm: Following symlinks to directories when installing packages allows privilege escalation

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 rpm Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 rpm, rpm-cron, rpm-libs, rpm-build, rpm-python, rpm-apidocs Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 rpm, rpm-cron, rpm-libs, rpm-sign, rpm-build, rpm-python, +3 more
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.41% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 35% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 7.3 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.0 7.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

  • [UNKNOWN] rpm

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.