CVE-2026-86692 PUBLISHED

apport: Arbitrary file creation or overwrite via path traversal in base64-encoded problem report keys

Assigner: canonical
Reserved: 23.09.2026 Published: 09.11.2026 Updated: 09.11.2026

In apport before 2.37.0, a path traversal vulnerability allows an attacker who can supply a crafted crash report to cause unintended file creation or overwrite outside the intended extraction directory when the report is processed with apport-unpack.

The key-name validation added for CVE-2026-77113 does not cover base64-encoded keys skipped by ProblemReport.load(binary=False), and ProblemReport.extract_keys() writes them to a file path built from the key without validation. This allows an attacker to create or overwrite arbitrary files writable by the invoking user, such as .bashrc or .profile, gaining persistence or code execution in that user's context.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS Score: 5.7

Product Status

Vendor Canonical
Product apport
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 2.16.0 to 2.37.0 (excl.)

Credits

  • Federico Quattrin reporter
  • Benjamin Drung remediation developer

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') CWE