Skip to content
Heist/ feed
Back to feed
High

Security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVCVE: CVE-2018-11786

In Apache Karaf prior to 4.2.0 release, if the sshd service in Karaf is left on so an administrator can manage the running instance, any user with rights to the Karaf console can pivot and read/write any file on the file system to which the Karaf process user has access. This can be locked down a bit by using chroot to change the root directory to protect files outside of the Karaf install directory; it can be further locked down by defining a security manager policy that limits file system access to those directories beneath the Karaf home that are necessary for the system to run. However, this still allows anyone with ssh access to the Karaf process to read and write a large number of files as the Karaf process user.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2018-11786
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
1 Nov 2026, 04:50 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

CVE-2018-11786

core-osv · Original source

Published 18 Sept 2018, 14:29 UTC

In Apache Karaf prior to 4.2.0 release, if the sshd service in Karaf is left on so an administrator can manage the running instance, any user with rights to the Karaf console can pivot and read/write any file on the file system to which the Karaf process user has access. This can be locked down a bit by using chroot to change the root directory to protect files outside of the Karaf install directory; it can be further locked down by defining a security manager policy that limits file system access to those directories beneath the Karaf home that are necessary for the system to run. However, this still allows anyone with ssh access to the Karaf process to read and write a large number of files as the Karaf process user.

osv:CVE-2018-11786
Complete source record
{
  "id": "db8a898b4c9f9a44f25cbaaf63398aa359551206e3a3702780705c0252d301bc",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-11786",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "CVE-2018-11786",
    "summary": "In Apache Karaf prior to 4.2.0 release, if the sshd service in Karaf is left on so an administrator can manage the running instance, any user with rights to the Karaf console can pivot and read/write any file on the file system to which the Karaf process user has access. This can be locked down a bit by using chroot to change the root directory to protect files outside of the Karaf install directory; it can be further locked down by defining a security manager policy that limits file system access to those directories beneath the Karaf home that are necessary for the system to run. However, this still allows anyone with ssh access to the Karaf process to read and write a large number of files as the Karaf process user.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2018-11786",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2018-11786",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2018-11786",
        "GHSA-9448-c9wq-jg9v"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/apache/karaf",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "9ae46fd6a4c8137d01da29c5405ce7381f923c55"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "4.2.0"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "karaf-4.2.0.M2",
            "karaf-4.2.0.M1",
            "karaf-4.1.1",
            "karaf-4.1.0",
            "karaf-4.0.4",
            "karaf-4.0.3",
            "karaf-4.0.2",
            "karaf-4.0.1",
            "karaf-4.0.0.M2",
            "karaf-4.0.0.M1",
            "karaf-3.0.0"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2018-11786.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-24T10:30:22.638522620Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/5b7ac762c6bbe77ac5d9389f093fc6dbf196c36d788e3d7629e6c1d9%40%3Cdev.karaf.apache.org%3E",
        "https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KARAF-5427"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {}
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2018-11786",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 430720,
  "published_at": "2018-09-18T14:29:00.357+00:00"
}