CVE-2024-48991: needrestart · Race Condition
Affects needrestartSource GCVE Database
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High.
Data as of 29 Oct 2026, 22:52 UTC
Thin evidence
One scorer or none| CNA (canonical) | CVSS 3.1 | 7.8 |
|---|
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 19 Nov 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: 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 29 Oct 2026.
What to do
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| needrestart needrestart | Affected
| Fixed in– |
Description
Qualys discovered that needrestart, before version 3.8, allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code as root by winning a race condition and tricking needrestart into running their own, fake Python interpreter (instead of the system's real Python interpreter). The initial security fix (6ce6136) introduced a regression which was subsequently resolved (42af5d3).
References
- cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-48991 (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/liske/needrestart/commit/6ce6136cccc307c6b8a0f8cae12f9a22ac2aad59 (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/liske/needrestart/commit/42af5d328901287a4f79d1f5861ac827a53fd56d (opens in a new tab)
- qualys.com/2024/11/19/needrestart/needrestart.txt (opens in a new tab)
- openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/11/30/4 (opens in a new tab)
- openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/11/19/1 (opens in a new tab)
- seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2024/Nov/17 (opens in a new tab)
- lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/11/msg00014.html (opens in a new tab)