CVE-2017-5180

HIGH

Firejail <0.9.44.4 & 0.9.38.x LTS <0.9.38.8 - Sandbox-Escape

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2017-5180. PoCs published by Sebastian Krahmer.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This exploit leverages a race condition in Firejail to gain root privileges by manipulating /etc/ld.so.preload via a symlink attack. It uses a shared library that acts as both an executable and a preloaded library to spawn a root shell.

Description

Firejail before 0.9.44.4 and 0.9.38.x LTS before 0.9.38.8 LTS does not consider the .Xauthority case during its attempt to prevent accessing user files with an euid of zero, which allows local users to conduct sandbox-escape attacks via vectors involving a symlink and the --private option.

Exploits (1)

exploitdb WORKING POC
by Sebastian Krahmer · clocallinux
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/43359

This exploit leverages a race condition in Firejail to gain root privileges by manipulating /etc/ld.so.preload via a symlink attack. It uses a shared library that acts as both an executable and a preloaded library to spawn a root shell.

Classification
Working Poc 100%
Attack Type
Lpe
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Racy
Target: Firejail (tested with commit 699ab75654ad5ab7b48b067a2679c544cc8725f6)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Firejail installed · User access to execute firejail · Write access to home directory
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →

References (4)

Core 4
Core References
Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry vdb-entry x_refsource_bid
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95298
Release Notes, Vendor Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://firejail.wordpress.com/download-2/release-notes/
Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory x_refsource_gentoo
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-62
Mailing List, Third Party Advisory x_refsource_misc
http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/01/04/2

Scores

CVSS v3 8.8
EPSS 0.0010
EPSS Percentile 27.1%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-862
Status published
Products (2)
firejail_project/firejail < 0.9.44.4
firejail_project/firejail 0.9.38 - 0.9.38.8
Published Feb 09, 2017
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026