CVE-2017-12172

medium
Published 2017-11-22 · Modified 2026-05-13
CVSS v3
6.7
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v2
7.2
VIR risk
6.7

Description

PostgreSQL 10.x before 10.1, 9.6.x before 9.6.6, 9.5.x before 9.5.10, 9.4.x before 9.4.15, 9.3.x before 9.3.20, and 9.2.x before 9.2.24 runs under a non-root operating system account, and database superusers have effective ability to run arbitrary code under that system account. PostgreSQL provides a script for starting the database server during system boot. Packages of PostgreSQL for many operating systems provide their own, packager-authored startup implementations. Several implementations use a log file name that the database superuser can replace with a symbolic link. As root, they open(), chmod() and/or chown() this log file name. This often suffices for the database superuser to escalate to root privileges when root starts the server.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood
66%
Patch ETA

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: suse — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-12172.html

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: secalert@redhat.com — https://www.postgresql.org/support/security/

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: secalert@redhat.com — https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/1801/

OS impact

OSVersionStatusFixed in
arch archfixed9.6.6-1
suse slesaffected

Application impact

VendorProductVersionsFixed
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.1
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.2
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.3
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.4
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.5
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.6
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.7
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.8
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.9
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.10
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.11
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.12
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.13
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.14
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.15
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.16
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.17
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.18
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.19
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.20
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.21
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.22
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.2.23
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.1
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.2
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.3
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.4
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.5
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.6
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.7
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.8
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.9
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.10
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.11
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.12
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.13
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.14
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.15
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.16
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.17
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.18
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.3.19
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.1
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.2
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.3
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.4
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.5
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.6
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.7
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.8
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.9
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.10
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.11
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.12
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.13
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.4.14
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.5
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.5.1
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.5.2
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.5.3
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.5.4
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.5.5
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.5.6
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.5.7
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.5.8
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.5.9
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.6
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.6.1
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.6.2
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.6.3
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.6.4
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql9.6.5
postgresql postgresqlpostgresql10

References

CWEs

CWE-59

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.