CVE-2018-16888: Canonical Ubuntu Linux

Medium severity, CVSS 4.7. EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

It was discovered systemd does not correctly check the content of PIDFile files before using it to kill processes. When a service is run from an unprivileged user (e.g. User field set in the service file), a local attacker who is able to write to the PIDFile of the mentioned service may use this flaw to trick systemd into killing other services and/or privileged processes. Versions before v237 are vulnerable.

Affected products

• Canonical Ubuntu Linux: version 16.04 only; version 18.04 only; version 19.10 only
• Netapp Active Iq Performance Analytics Services: affected versions not specified
• Netapp Element Software: affected versions not specified
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux: version 7.0 only
• Systemd Project Systemd: before 237 (fixed in 237)

Published 2019-01-14. Last modified 2026-06-17.