CVE-2024-48990

HIGHNVD 7.87.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2024-11-19. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
Weaponized
7.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPatch this weekExploitation is likely or a public exploit exists.
  • Public exploit code is available (Metasploit, epss top5pct, public exploit)
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 20%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: Metasploit · epss top5pct · public exploitExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

Qualys discovered that needrestart, before version 3.8, allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code as root by tricking needrestart into running the Python interpreter with an attacker-controlled PYTHONPATH environment variable.

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
7.8(medium)
EG Risk
61(Track)
EG Risk 61/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity78% × 45%
Exploitation65% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
20%
EPSS %ILE
97%
KEV
Not listed

Published

November 19, 2024

Last Modified

November 3, 2025

References (6)

Patch Availability(1)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntuneedrestart (2.6-1ubuntu0.1~esm1) @ xenial2026-05-23ubuntu

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(4 across 4 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
needrestart3.5-4, 3.5-4+deb11u1, 3.5-4+deb11u2, 3.5-4+deb11u33.5-4+deb11u4—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
needrestart3.6-4, 3.6-4+deb12u13.6-4+deb12u2—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
needrestart—3.7-3.1—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
needrestart—3.7-3.1—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

All Vendor Advisories

(1)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 7× in last 7d / 29× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 154 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-09-19 15:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-09-18 19:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-09-17 19:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-09-16 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
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  17. 2026-09-02 14:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-09-01 17:56 UTCOSV refresh
  19. 2026-09-01 13:52 UTCEPSS rescore
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  21. 2026-08-30 19:16 UTCEPSS rescore
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  1. 2026-08-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
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  8. 2026-08-18 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-08-16 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-08-16 02:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-08-15 19:07 UTCOSV refresh
  12. 2026-08-15 01:29 UTCEPSS rescore
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  14. 2026-08-12 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
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  23. 2026-08-02 02:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-08-01 04:14 UTCEPSS rescore
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  26. 2026-07-31 11:42 UTCOSV refresh
  27. 2026-07-30 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-07-30 01:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-07-28 15:35 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-07-26 14:53 UTCEPSS rescore
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  37. 2026-07-23 02:42 UTCEG score recompute
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  40. 2026-07-21 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-07-20 17:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-07-19 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
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  44. 2026-07-18 10:03 UTCEPSS rescore
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  46. 2026-07-16 17:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-07-15 16:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-07-13 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-07-13 19:07 UTCOSV refresh
  51. 2026-07-12 05:45 UTCEPSS rescore
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  53. 2026-07-11 08:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-07-09 19:09 UTCEPSS rescore
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  56. 2026-07-08 15:14 UTCEPSS rescore
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  63. 2026-06-28 14:07 UTCEPSS rescore
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  66. 2026-06-27 03:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  67. 2026-06-27 03:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-06-25 16:46 UTCOSV refresh
  69. 2026-06-25 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  70. 2026-06-24 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
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  72. 2026-06-23 21:32 UTCEPSS rescore
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  74. 2026-06-22 14:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-06-22 14:25 UTCEPSS rescore

Publicly available exploits

(10 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 Metasploit module) (9 GitHub PoCs). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCtahsinunluturk/needrestart-privesc-cve-2024-48990
    First seen Dec 19, 2025

    Local privilege escalation exploit for needrestart (CVE-2024-48990)

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCo-sec/CVE-2024-48990
    First seen Dec 16, 2025

    an exploit for CVE-2024-48990 ( Local Privilege Escalation ) in needrestart

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCSerner77/CVE-2024-48990-Automatic-Exploit
    First seen Oct 28, 2025

    Automated local privilege escalation exploit for CVE-2024-48990 (needrestart v3.7), leveraging PYTHONPATH hijacking to gain root access.

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCczeti/CVE-2024-48990_needrestart
    First seen Feb 16, 2025

    Exploit for CVE-2024-48990 - Privilege Escalation in Needrestart 3.7-3. For eductional purposes only

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCally-petitt/CVE-2024-48990-Exploit
    First seen Nov 25, 2024

    My exploit for CVE-2024-48990. Full details of how I made this are on my blog.

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCCyb3rFr0g/CVE-2024-48990-PoC
    First seen Nov 24, 2024

    My take on the needrestart Python CVE-2024-48990

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCpentestfunctions/CVE-2024-48990-PoC-Testing
    First seen Nov 24, 2024

    Testing POC for use cases

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCns989/CVE-2024-48990
    First seen Nov 21, 2024

    Exploit for CVE-2024-48990 (Local Privilege Escalation in needrestart < 3.8)

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCmakuga01/CVE-2024-48990-PoC
    First seen Nov 20, 2024

    PoC for CVE-2024-48990

    Open source ↗
  • Metasploitexploit/linux/local/ubuntu_needrestart_lpe✓ verified
    First seen Nov 19, 2024

    Ubuntu needrestart Privilege Escalation

    Open source ↗

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2024-48990?
CVE-2024-48990 is a high vulnerability published on November 19, 2024. Qualys discovered that needrestart, before version 3.8, allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code as root by tricking needrestart into running the Python interpreter with an attacker-controlled PYTHONPATH environment variable.
When was CVE-2024-48990 disclosed?
CVE-2024-48990 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on November 19, 2024, with the most recent update on November 3, 2025. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2024-48990 actively exploited?
CVE-2024-48990 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 20% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 2.6% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2024-48990?
CVE-2024-48990 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2024-48990?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2024-48990, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

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