Debian and Ubuntu APT Flaw Lets MitM Attackers Swap Verified Packages and Run Code as Root

A vulnerability has been discovered in APT, the package manager used by Debian and Ubuntu, that enables man-in-the-middle attackers to substitute verified packages with their own. This allows the attacker's code to run with root privileges. The attack relies on APT's default behavior of retrying failed downloads, a feature present in Debian 12 and potentially other versions. By modifying package downloads, an attacker can exploit this flaw to execute their own code as root. Debian, Ubuntu, and APT's developers have published advisories regarding this issue. The advisories were released on November 4, highlighting the potential risk associated with this vulnerability.