CVE-2024-48991 Affecting needrestart package, versions <3.7-3.1
Threat Intelligence
The probability is the direct output of the EPSS model, and conveys an overall sense of the threat of exploitation in the wild. The percentile measures the EPSS probability relative to all known EPSS scores. Note: This data is updated daily, relying on the latest available EPSS model version. Check out the EPSS documentation for more details.
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Test your applications- Snyk IDSNYK-DEBIAN14-NEEDRESTART-11761461
- published10 Aug 2025
- disclosed19 Nov 2024
Introduced: 19 Nov 2024
CVE-2024-48991 (opens in a new tab)How to fix?
Upgrade Debian:14 needrestart to version 3.7-3.1 or higher.
NVD Description
Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream needrestart package and not the needrestart package as distributed by Debian.
See How to fix? for Debian:14 relevant fixed versions and status.
Qualys discovered that needrestart, before version 3.8, allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code as root by winning a race condition and tricking needrestart into running their own, fake Python interpreter (instead of the system's real Python interpreter). The initial security fix (6ce6136) introduced a regression which was subsequently resolved (42af5d3).
References
- https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-48991
- https://github.com/liske/needrestart/commit/42af5d328901287a4f79d1f5861ac827a53fd56d
- https://github.com/liske/needrestart/commit/6ce6136cccc307c6b8a0f8cae12f9a22ac2aad59
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-48991
- https://www.qualys.com/2024/11/19/needrestart/needrestart.txt
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/11/30/4
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/11/19/1
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2024/Nov/17
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/11/msg00014.html