Skip to content
Fencer Intel
medium 4.4

CVE-2018-16888 json

It was discovered systemd does not correctly check the content of PIDFile files before using it to kill processes.

published 2019-01-14 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-8676

cvss
4.4
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 22%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

It was discovered systemd does not correctly check the content of PIDFile files before using it to kill processes. When a service is run from an unprivileged user (e.g. User field set in the service file), a local attacker who is able to write to the PIDFile of the mentioned service may use this flaw to trick systemd into killing other services and/or privileged processes. Versions before v237 are vulnerable.

Patch / fix

  • systemd_project systemd 237
  • systemd Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 237-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16888

  • systemd Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 229-4ubuntu21.27

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-16888

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • systemd RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • libgudev1 RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-libs RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-sysv RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-python RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-networkd RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-resolved RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-journal-gateway RHEL 7 219-67.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:2091

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-2018-16888 updated cvss 4.4

systemd: kills privileged process if unprivileged PIDFile was tampered

  • Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.4 for RHEL 7 Server ansible-tower-34/ansible-tower-memcached 1.4.15-28, ansible-tower-35/ansible-tower-memcached 1.4.15-28, ansible-tower-37/ansible-tower-memcached-rhel7 1.4.15-28
    fixed: vendor fix RHBA-2020:0547
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) systemd 219-67.el7, libgudev1 219-67.el7, systemd-libs 219-67.el7, systemd-sysv 219-67.el7, systemd-python 219-67.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) systemd-networkd 219-67.el7, systemd-resolved 219-67.el7, systemd-journal-gateway 219-67.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) systemd 219-67.el7, libgudev1 219-67.el7, systemd-libs 219-67.el7, systemd-sysv 219-67.el7, systemd-python 219-67.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) systemd-networkd 219-67.el7, systemd-resolved 219-67.el7, systemd-journal-gateway 219-67.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) systemd 219-67.el7, libgudev1 219-67.el7, systemd-libs 219-67.el7, systemd-sysv 219-67.el7, systemd-python 219-67.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) systemd-networkd 219-67.el7, systemd-resolved 219-67.el7, systemd-journal-gateway 219-67.el7
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) systemd 219-67.el7, libgudev1 219-67.el7, systemd-libs 219-67.el7, systemd-sysv 219-67.el7, systemd-python 219-67.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) systemd-networkd 219-67.el7, systemd-resolved 219-67.el7, systemd-journal-gateway 219-67.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2091
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 systemd, systemd-pam, systemd-libs, systemd-udev, systemd-tests, systemd-container, +1 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

0.29% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 22% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 4.4 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 4.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 1.9 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Affected products

  • The systemd Project systemd

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-250 Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
  • CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management

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.