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.
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Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2024-11-19. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.
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.
November 19, 2024
November 3, 2025
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | needrestart (2.6-1ubuntu0.1~esm1) @ xenial | 2026-05-23 | ubuntu |
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.
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
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.
Every time one of our enrichment pipelines (NVD, MITRE cvelistV5, EPSS, CISA KEV, GHSA, OSV, vendor advisories) ran against this CVE. Most recent first.
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.
Local privilege escalation exploit for needrestart (CVE-2024-48990)
Open source ↗an exploit for CVE-2024-48990 ( Local Privilege Escalation ) in needrestart
Open source ↗Automated local privilege escalation exploit for CVE-2024-48990 (needrestart v3.7), leveraging PYTHONPATH hijacking to gain root access.
Open source ↗Exploit for CVE-2024-48990 - Privilege Escalation in Needrestart 3.7-3. For eductional purposes only
Open source ↗My exploit for CVE-2024-48990. Full details of how I made this are on my blog.
Open source ↗My take on the needrestart Python CVE-2024-48990
Open source ↗Testing POC for use cases
Open source ↗Exploit for CVE-2024-48990 (Local Privilege Escalation in needrestart < 3.8)
Open source ↗PoC for CVE-2024-48990
Open source ↗Ubuntu needrestart Privilege Escalation
Open source ↗See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2024-48990
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CWE-427