{"id":"USN-3816-3","aliases":[],"status":"published","title":"systemd regression","description":"USN-3816-1 fixed vulnerabilities in systemd. The fix for CVE-2018-6954\ncaused a regression in systemd-tmpfiles when running Ubuntu inside a\ncontainer on some older kernels. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04\nLTS. In order to continue to support this configuration, the fixes for\nCVE-2018-6954 have been reverted.\n\nWe apologize for the inconvenience.\n\nOriginal advisory details:\n\n Jann Horn discovered that unit_deserialize incorrectly handled status messages\n above a certain length. A local attacker could potentially exploit this via\n NotifyAccess to inject arbitrary state across re-execution and obtain root\n privileges. (CVE-2018-15686)\n \n Jann Horn discovered a race condition in chown_one(). A local attacker\n could potentially exploit this by setting arbitrary permissions on certain\n files to obtain root privileges. This issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS\n and Ubuntu 18.10. (CVE-2018-15687)\n \n It was discovered that systemd-tmpfiles mishandled symlinks in\n non-terminal path components. A local attacker could potentially exploit\n this by gaining ownership of certain files to obtain root privileges. This\n issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. (CVE-2018-6954)","facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":true},"published":"2018-11-27T19:18:44Z","modified":"2026-04-22T09:51:56Z","fixes":[{"ecosystem":"Ubuntu:16.04:LTS","package":"systemd","fixed_in":["229-4ubuntu21.10"],"sources":["osv"]}],"affected":[{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:16.04:LTS","package":"systemd","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"229-4ubuntu21.10"}]}],"versions":["225-1ubuntu9","227-2ubuntu1","227-2ubuntu2","228-1ubuntu2","228-2ubuntu1","228-2ubuntu2","228-3ubuntu1","228-4ubuntu1","228-4ubuntu2","228-5ubuntu1","228-5ubuntu2","228-5ubuntu3","228-6ubuntu1","229-1ubuntu2","229-1ubuntu4","229-2ubuntu1","229-3ubuntu1","229-3ubuntu2","229-4ubuntu1","229-4ubuntu4","229-4ubuntu5","229-4ubuntu6","229-4ubuntu7","229-4ubuntu8","229-4ubuntu10","229-4ubuntu11","229-4ubuntu12","229-4ubuntu13","229-4ubuntu16","229-4ubuntu17","229-4ubuntu19","229-4ubuntu20","229-4ubuntu21","229-4ubuntu21.1","229-4ubuntu21.2","229-4ubuntu21.3","229-4ubuntu21.4","229-4ubuntu21.5","229-4ubuntu21.6","229-4ubuntu21.8","229-4ubuntu21.9"]}],"references":[{"url":"https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3816-3","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://launchpad.net/bugs/1804847","tags":["report"]}],"sources":{"osv":[{"id":"USN-3816-3","title":"systemd regression","description":"USN-3816-1 fixed vulnerabilities in systemd. The fix for CVE-2018-6954\ncaused a regression in systemd-tmpfiles when running Ubuntu inside a\ncontainer on some older kernels. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04\nLTS. In order to continue to support this configuration, the fixes for\nCVE-2018-6954 have been reverted.\n\nWe apologize for the inconvenience.\n\nOriginal advisory details:\n\n Jann Horn discovered that unit_deserialize incorrectly handled status messages\n above a certain length. A local attacker could potentially exploit this via\n NotifyAccess to inject arbitrary state across re-execution and obtain root\n privileges. (CVE-2018-15686)\n \n Jann Horn discovered a race condition in chown_one(). A local attacker\n could potentially exploit this by setting arbitrary permissions on certain\n files to obtain root privileges. This issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS\n and Ubuntu 18.10. (CVE-2018-15687)\n \n It was discovered that systemd-tmpfiles mishandled symlinks in\n non-terminal path components. A local attacker could potentially exploit\n this by gaining ownership of certain files to obtain root privileges. This\n issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. (CVE-2018-6954)\n","status":"published","published":"2018-11-27T19:18:44Z","modified":"2026-04-22T09:51:56.244901Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T16:58:14.019824Z"}]}}