Root privilege escalation via non-root-owned mandb
Published Jan 25, 2023 · Updated Apr 2, 2025
Privilege escalation in Gentoo man-db before 2.8.5 allows local users with access to the man account to gain root privileges. Gentoo's root-run cron job executes /usr/bin/mandb even though that executable is owned by the less-privileged man account. Control of the man user or group is required, and successful exploitation yields root-level control of the affected host.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in Gentoo man-db before 2.8.5 allows local users with access to the man account to gain root privileges. Gentoo's root-run cron job executes /usr/bin/mandb even though that executable is owned by the less-privileged man account. Control of the man user or group is required, and successful exploitation yields root-level control of the affected host.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2018-25078
- Published
- Jan 25, 2023
- Updated
- Apr 2, 2025
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-250, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 25, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 2, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
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What is affected?
Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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