CVE-2017-16997
glibc: Incorrect handling of RPATH in elf/dl-load.c can be used to execute code loaded from arbitrary libraries
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.0
Review impact separately from score.
Published · December 17, 2017
Updated · May 13, 2026
Description
elf/dl-load.c in the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) 2.19 through 2.26 mishandles RPATH and RUNPATH containing $ORIGIN for a privileged (setuid or AT_SECURE) program, which allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse library in the current working directory, related to the fillin_rpath and decompose_rpath functions. This is associated with misinterpretion of an empty RPATH/RUNPATH token as the "./" directory. NOTE: this configuration of RPATH/RUNPATH for a privileged program is apparently very uncommon; most likely, no such program is shipped with any common Linux distribution.
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.0 · 7.8CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE-470 · Use of Externally-Controlled Input to Select Classes or Code ('Unsafe Reflection')