CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-3972 — A vulnerability was found in insights-client

High CVSS 7.8

A vulnerability was found in insights-client. This security issue occurs because of insecure file operations or unsafe handling of temporary files and directories that lead to local privilege escalation. Before the insights-client has been registered on the system by root, an unprivileged local user or attacker could create the /var/tmp/insights-client directory (owning the directory with read, write, and execute permissions) on the system. After the insights-client is registered by root, an attacker could then control the directory content that insights are using by putting malicious scripts into it and executing arbitrary code as root (trivially bypassing SELinux protections because insights processes are allowed to disable SELinux system-wide).

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.1)
Published
2023-11-01
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-379, CWE-668

Affected products

  • redhat / insights-client
  • redhat / enterprise_linux / 7.0
  • redhat / enterprise_linux / 8.0
  • redhat / enterprise_linux / 9.0
  • redhat / enterprise_linux_aus / 8.6
  • redhat / enterprise_linux_desktop / 7.0

Showing 6 representative product identities from 51 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Path traversal, unsafe upload, and file handling

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted filenames, archive entries, URLs, and path segments into read, write, include, extraction, and upload operations.
  • Identify filesystem roots, mount permissions, symbolic-link behavior, archive handling, and whether uploaded content is web-accessible or executable.
  • Review canonicalization and containment checks across supported operating systems and storage backends.

Remediate safely

  • Generate server-side storage identifiers and resolve paths beneath a fixed root using filesystem-aware containment checks.
  • Reject absolute, parent-relative, alternate-separator, device, link, and archive entries that escape the intended root.
  • Store uploads outside executable or served paths, validate type and size, and use private atomic temporary files.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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