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passenger — security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVAdvisory ID: DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12029

A race condition in the nginx module in Phusion Passenger 3.x through 5.x before 5.3.2 allows local escalation of privileges when a non-standard passenger_instance_registry_dir with insufficiently strict permissions is configured. Replacing a file with a symlink after the file was created, but before it was chowned, leads to the target of the link being chowned via the path. Targeting sensitive files such as root's crontab file allows privilege escalation.

Products
passenger
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
5.0.30-1.1
CVEs
CVE-2018-12029
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
1 Nov 2026, 00:52 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12029

core-osv · Original source

Published 17 Jun 2018, 20:29 UTC

A race condition in the nginx module in Phusion Passenger 3.x through 5.x before 5.3.2 allows local escalation of privileges when a non-standard passenger_instance_registry_dir with insufficiently strict permissions is configured. Replacing a file with a symlink after the file was created, but before it was chowned, leads to the target of the link being chowned via the path. Targeting sensitive files such as root's crontab file allows privilege escalation.

osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12029

passenger

Fixed versions: 5.0.30-1.1

passenger

Fixed versions: 5.0.30-1.1

passenger

Fixed versions: 5.0.30-1.1

Complete source record
{
  "id": "8f4b6adc6463cfe1dc5038ab926bc4921620dd0d700db0fa90d6c0c02cbefd07",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12029",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12029",
    "summary": "A race condition in the nginx module in Phusion Passenger 3.x through 5.x before 5.3.2 allows local escalation of privileges when a non-standard passenger_instance_registry_dir with insufficiently strict permissions is configured. Replacing a file with a symlink after the file was created, but before it was chowned, leads to the target of the link being chowned via the path. Targeting sensitive files such as root's crontab file allows privilege escalation.",
    "evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12029",
    "products": [
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "passenger",
          "evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "5.0.30-1.1",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "passenger",
          "evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "5.0.30-1.1",
            "evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "passenger",
          "evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "5.0.30-1.1",
            "evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      }
    ],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12029",
      "aliases": [
        "DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12029"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "5.0.30-1.1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "passenger",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/passenger?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:12"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12029.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "unimportant"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "5.0.30-1.1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "passenger",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/passenger?arch=source&distro=trixie",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:13"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12029.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "unimportant"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "5.0.30-1.1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "passenger",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/passenger?arch=source&distro=forky",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:14"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12029.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "unimportant"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-23T18:03:53.601766067Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "upstream": [
        "CVE-2018-12029"
      ],
      "references": [
        "https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-12029"
      ]
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2018-12029",
        "evidence": "/upstream"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 422521,
  "published_at": "2018-06-17T20:29:00.493+00:00"
}