CVE-2025-49809
Description
A possible privilege escalation flaw was found in the MTR networking tool. This issue occurs in rare cases when the package is configured to run with sudo rules instead of setuid and stems from its improper handling in the execution of a program specified by the MTR_PACKET environment variable.
Statement
The condition to exploit this vulnerability is not the default behavior on Linux systems and should rarely occur.
In Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), mtr does not rely on sudo or setuid for privilege elevation. Instead, RHEL uses file system capabilities (cap_net_raw+ep) on the mtr-packet binary to grant the necessary privileges securely without requiring full root access. As a result, the vulnerable execution path (such as /etc/mtr.is.run.under.sudo) is not used in RHEL, rendering the exploit path non-functional in this environment. There is no need for custom sudo rules for mtr, which is the only configuration impacted by the reported issue.
For more details see discussion upstream, https://github.com/traviscross/mtr/issues/541.
Mitigation
No mitigation is currently available that meets Red Hat Product Security’s standards for usability, deployment, applicability, or stability.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7.8 | N/A | 7.8 |
| Attack Vector | Local | N/A | Local |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | Low | N/A | Low |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Changed |
| Confidentiality | High | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Integrity,Availability
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
An attacker could insert malicious functionality into the program by causing the program to download code that the attacker has placed into the untrusted control sphere, such as a malicious web site. This could enable the injection of malware, information exposure by granting excessive privileges or permissions to the untrusted functionality, DOM-based XSS vulnerabilities, stealing user's cookies, open redirect to malware (CWE-601), etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
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