CVE-2016-20015Public exploit

Root privilege escalation via directory ownership race

Published Sep 20, 2022 · Updated May 29, 2025

Privilege escalation in Gentoo's SmokePing ebuild through 2.7.3-r1 allows local users with smokeping access to gain root privileges. A race between handling /var/lib/smokeping and the privileged chown operation lets that user cause an arbitrary file to become owned by smokeping. Exploitation requires local access as the smokeping account; ownership of a root-controlled file enables full privilege escalation.

CVSS severity7.5
High
EPSS probability0.58%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
Coverage for this vulnerability

See if you're affected

Explore vulnerability checks for your environment with Hinoki.

Book a demo

Summary

What happened

Privilege escalation in Gentoo's SmokePing ebuild through 2.7.3-r1 allows local users with smokeping access to gain root privileges. A race between handling /var/lib/smokeping and the privileged chown operation lets that user cause an arbitrary file to become owned by smokeping. Exploitation requires local access as the smokeping account; ownership of a root-controlled file enables full privilege escalation.

The record

CVE
CVE-2016-20015
Published
Sep 20, 2022
Updated
May 29, 2025
Vendor
Unknown vendor
Product
Unknown product
Classifications
CWE-362, T1068
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Sep 20, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. May 29, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.

Is a vulnerable build present?

Affected buildAffected product and version details are unavailable.

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.

Published CVSS scores

7.5NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
7.5CISA-ADPCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitPublished

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-362Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')
T1068Exploitation for Privilege Escalation

Public exploit references

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

See the directory against your own environment.

Your stack

Check the software in your environment

Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.

Book a demo