CVE-2017-20147VulnerabilityPublished 20 Sep 2022Updated 29 May 2025

CVE-2017-20147: n/a

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.5 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 1.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 63% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 20 Sep 2022
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Immediately review and restrict file permissions on the SmokePing PID file to ensure it is not writable by the smokeping user or any unprivileged user. The PID file should be owned by root or the service manager with write permissions limited accordingly. 2) Upgrade to a fixed version of SmokePing or the Gentoo ebuild package once available, or apply vendor-provided patches if released. 3) Limit smokeping user privileges strictly to what is necessary, avoiding granting shell access or other capabilities that could facilitate local exploitation. 4) Implement monitoring and alerting for unexpected termination of critical processes to detect potential exploitation attempts. 5) Use system-level protections such as process accounting and auditd to track suspicious activities related to process termination. 6) Consider containerizing or sandboxing the SmokePing service to isolate it from critical system processes, reducing the blast radius of potential exploitation. 7) Regularly review and harden init scripts and service management configurations to prevent writable PID files or other insecure file permission issues.

Description

In the ebuild package through smokeping-2.7.3-r1 for SmokePing on Gentoo, the initscript uses a PID file that is writable by the smokeping user. By writing arbitrary PIDs to that file, the smokeping user can cause a denial of service to arbitrary PIDs when the service is stopped.

Impact

For European organizations using Gentoo Linux with the vulnerable SmokePing package, this vulnerability poses a risk of local denial of service. SmokePing is a network latency monitoring tool often used in network operations centers to track network performance. If an attacker gains smokeping user access, they could disrupt monitoring services or cause collateral damage by terminating unrelated critical processes, potentially impacting network monitoring reliability and operational continuity. This could lead to delayed detection of network issues or outages, affecting service quality and incident response. While the vulnerability requires local access, in environments where multiple users have access or where the smokeping user privileges are not tightly controlled, the risk increases. European organizations with strict uptime and monitoring requirements, such as telecom providers, ISPs, and large enterprises with complex network infrastructures, could face operational disruptions. The impact on confidentiality and integrity is minimal, but availability degradation could have cascading effects on network management and incident handling.

CWE-377Insecure Temporary File (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessOWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
Creating and using insecure temporary files can leave application and system data vulnerable to attack.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Explore for Predictable Temporary File Names (opens in a new tab)
Screen Temporary Files for Sensitive Information (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 8 Jul 2025, 03:13 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-377

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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