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Fencer Intel
medium 4.0

CVE-2020-15703 json

aptdaemon allows unprivileged users to test for the presence of local files via the transaction Locale property

published 6y ago modified 4mo ago also GHSA-wpmr-q825-x4c6 , PYSEC-2026-783 , EUVD-2022-5615

cvss
4.0
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 42%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

There is no input validation on the Locale property in an apt transaction. An unprivileged user can supply a full path to a writable directory, which lets aptd read a file as root. Having a symlink in place results in an error message if the file exists, and no error otherwise. This way an unprivileged user can check for the existence of any files on the system as root.

Patch / fix

  • pypi aptdaemon 1.1.1
  • Canonical aptdaemon 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu14.4, 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu19.4, 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu32.2
  • aptdaemon Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu14.4
  • aptdaemon Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu19.4
  • aptdaemon Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu32.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-15703

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

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Exploit prediction

0.49% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 42% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • eyecontrol.nl https://www.eyecontrol.nl/blog/the-story-of-3-cves-in-ubuntu-desktop.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 4.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
NVD 3.1 3.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
OSV 3.1 4.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
GitHub 3.1 4.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
pypi aptdaemon
<1.1.1
1.1.1

Affected products

  • Canonical aptdaemon

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
  • CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

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.