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CVE-2025-3931NVD status: Deferred

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10: Improper Handling of Insufficient Permissions or Privileges

CVE-2025-3931 is a high-severity improper handling of insufficient permissions or privileges vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 from Red Hat, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 out of 10. It can be exploited with local access to the system by an attacker with a low-privileged account, without any action from a user. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.18% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Next patch cycle

High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.

What to do

  1. Check which version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 10Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Satellite 6Not specified in the recordNot stated

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
LocalThe attacker needs local access or must trick a user into running something.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
LowA basic user account is enough.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
HighData or code can be modified at will.
Availability
HighThe component can be taken down completely.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by CNA (redhat.com).

Official description

A flaw was found in Yggdrasil, which acts as a system broker, allowing the processes to communicate to other children's "worker" processes through the DBus component. Yggdrasil creates a DBus method to dispatch messages to workers. However, it misses authentication and authorization checks, allowing every system user to call it. One available Yggdrasil worker acts as a package manager with capabilities to create and enable new repositories and install or remove packages. This flaw allows an attacker with access to the system to leverage the lack of authentication on the dispatch message to force the Yggdrasil worker to install arbitrary RPM packages. This issue results in local privilege escalation, enabling the attacker to access and modify sensitive system data.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Improper Handling of Insufficient Permissions or Privileges

The product does not handle or incorrectly handles when it has insufficient privileges to access resources or functionality as specified by their permissions. This may cause it to follow unexpected code paths that may leave the product in an invalid state.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • Compartmentalize the system to have safe areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area. Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.
  • Always check to see if you have successfully accessed a resource or system functionality, and use proper error handling if it is unsuccessful. Do this even when you are operating in a highly privileged mode, because errors or environmental conditions might still cause a failure. For example, environments with highly granular permissions/privilege models, such as Windows or Linux capabilities, can cause unexpected failures.

More Improper Handling of Insufficient Permissions or Privileges vulnerabilities (CWE-280)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Other vulnerabilities in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 vulnerabilities

Recent Improper Handling of Insufficient Permissions or Privileges vulnerabilities

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