In the Linux kernel before 5.1.17, ptrace_link in kernel/ptrace.c mishandles the recording of the credentials of a process that wants to create a ptrace relationship, which allows local users to obtain root access by leveraging certain scenarios with a parent-child process relationship, where a parent drops privileges and calls execve (potentially allowing control by an attacker). One contributing factor is an object lifetime issue (which can also cause a panic). Another contributing factor is incorrect marking of a ptrace relationship as privileged, which is exploitable through (for example) Polkit's pkexec helper with PTRACE_TRACEME. NOTE: SELinux deny_ptrace might be a usable workaround in some environments.
CVE-2019-13272
Score elevated to 9.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-12-10), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 7.8
- EG Score
- 9.0(high)
- EG Risk
- 81(Attend)EG Risk 81/100SSVC: Attend
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 computedSeverity90% × 45%Exploitation100% × 40%Automatability0% × 15%Action: Remediate soon — notable exploitation risk. - EPSS
- 98.8%
- KEV
- ⚠ Exploited
Published
July 17, 2019
Last Modified
November 6, 2025
Advisory Details (8)
Auto-updated Jun 4, 2026Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2809Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2411Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2405Packet Storm
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/154957/Linux-Polkit-pkexec-Helper-PTRACE_TRACEME-Local-Root.htmlPatch Availability(8)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | linux-image-virtual-hwe-16.04 (4.15.0.58.79) @ xenial | 2026-07-22 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | linux-image-virtual-lts-xenial (4.4.0.159.167) @ xenial | 2026-07-22 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | linux-image-virtual (5.0.0.25.26) @ disco | 2026-07-22 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | linux-image-5.0.0-1014-aws (5.0.0-1014.16) @ disco | 2026-07-22 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | linux-image-aws-hwe (4.15.0.1047.47) @ xenial | 2026-07-22 | ubuntu |
| redhat | kernel-alt-0:4.14.0-115.12.1.el7a | 2019-09-20 | redhat |
| redhat | kernel-rt-0:4.18.0-80.7.2.rt9.154.el8_0 | 2019-08-07 | redhat |
| redhat | kernel-0:4.18.0-80.7.2.el8_0 | 2019-08-07 | redhat |
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.
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
All Vendor Advisories
(8)
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.
- Red HatRHSA-2019:2405IMPORTANT2019-07-16
RHSA-2019:2405 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2019:2411IMPORTANT2019-07-16
RHSA-2019:2411 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2019:2809IMPORTANT2019-07-16
RHSA-2019:2809 — Important
- UbuntuUSN-4093-1HIGH
Linux kernel vulnerabilities
- UbuntuUSN-4094-1HIGH
Linux kernel vulnerabilities
- UbuntuUSN-4095-1HIGH
Linux kernel vulnerabilities
- UbuntuUSN-4117-1HIGH
Linux kernel (AWS) vulnerabilities
- UbuntuUSN-4118-1HIGH
Linux kernel (AWS) vulnerabilities
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 84× in last 7d / 372× 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 667 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-07-23 01:39 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 23:08 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-22 23:08 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-22 22:19 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 19:40 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-22 18:44 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-22 18:44 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-22 14:20 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:20 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-22 14:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-22 09:56 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-22 09:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-22 05:33 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-22 05:33 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-22 01:10 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-22 01:10 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-21 20:46 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-21 20:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-21 16:22 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-21 16:22 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-21 16:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 14:37 UTCCISA KEV update
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- 2026-07-21 11:58 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-21 11:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-21 07:32 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-21 07:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-21 03:09 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-21 03:08 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-20 22:45 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-20 22:45 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-20 18:22 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-20 18:22 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-20 18:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 13:57 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-20 13:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-20 09:34 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-20 09:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-20 05:11 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-20 05:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-20 00:48 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-20 00:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-19 20:25 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-19 20:25 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-19 16:02 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-19 16:02 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-19 11:39 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-19 11:39 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-19 07:16 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-19 07:16 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-19 02:53 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-19 02:53 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-19 02:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 22:30 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-18 22:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-18 18:07 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-18 18:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-18 13:43 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-18 13:43 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-18 09:20 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-18 09:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-18 04:57 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-18 04:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-18 00:34 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-18 00:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-17 20:11 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-17 20:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-17 15:48 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-17 15:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-17 11:25 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-17 11:25 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-17 07:02 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-17 07:02 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-17 02:38 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-17 02:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 22:15 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-16 22:15 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 17:53 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-16 17:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 17:04 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 13:30 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-16 13:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 09:06 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-16 09:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 04:42 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-16 04:42 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 00:19 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-16 00:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-15 19:57 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-15 19:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:49 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-15 15:34 UTCVendor advisory
Publicly available exploits
(10 references)Working exploit code is in the public domain (6 GitHub PoCs) (4 Exploit-DB entries). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.
- GitHub PoCjosemlwdf/CVE-2019-13272First seen Jun 20, 2024
This is a Python 3 version of this exploit. Hope it works!!!
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCMDS1GNAL/ptrace_scope-CVE-2019-13272-privilege-escalationFirst seen Jan 31, 2024
Es una vulnerabilidad para escalar privilegios en linux.
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-50541First seen Nov 23, 2021
Linux Kernel 5.1.x - 'PTRACE_TRACEME' pkexec Local Privilege Escalation (2)
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCTharana/vulnerability-exploitationFirst seen May 12, 2020
Local Root vulnerability- CVE-2019-13272 / Security Bypass Vulnerability – CVE-2019-14287/Google Android - 'Stagefright' Remote Code Execution - CVE-2015-1538
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-47543✓ verifiedFirst seen Oct 24, 2019
Linux Polkit - pkexec helper PTRACE_TRACEME local root (Metasploit)
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoConeoy/CVE-2019-13272First seen Aug 7, 2019
linux 提权
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCjas502n/CVE-2019-13272First seen Jul 31, 2019
Linux 4.10 < 5.1.17 PTRACE_TRACEME local root
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCCyc1eC/CVE-2019-13272First seen Jul 31, 2019
The exploit for CVE-2019-13272
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-47163First seen Jul 24, 2019
Linux Kernel 4.10 < 5.1.17 - 'PTRACE_TRACEME' pkexec Local Privilege Escalation
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-47133✓ verifiedFirst seen Jul 17, 2019
Linux - Broken Permission and Object Lifetime Handling for PTRACE_TRACEME
Open source ↗
Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)
Same vendor
10 shownredhat
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-269
Frequently asked(6)
What is CVE-2019-13272?
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What is the CVSS score of CVE-2019-13272?
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Dependency Blast Radius
Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2019-13272
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