CVE Catalog

CVE-2022-0563

MediumCVSS 5.5
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.43%

36th percentile - higher than 36% of all known CVEs

Summary

A flaw was found in the util-linux chfn and chsh utilities when compiled with Readline support. The Readline library uses an INPUTRC environment variable to locate its config file, and when it cannot parse the specified file, it prints an error message containing data from that file. This allows an unprivileged user to read root-owned files, potentially leading to privilege escalation. This flaw affects util-linux versions prior to 2.37.4.

Risk Assessment

An unprivileged user can read root-owned files, potentially leading to privilege escalation and full system compromise. The risk is especially significant in multi-tenant systems.

Recommendation

Update util-linux to version 2.37.4 or later. Until the update, consider removing SUID permissions from chfn and chsh or restricting access to them.

Other vulnerabilities in util-linux

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

A flaw was found in the util-linux chfn and chsh utilities when compiled with Readline support. The Readline library uses an "INPUTRC" environment variable to get a path to the library config file. When the library cannot parse the specified file, it prints an error message containing data from the file. This flaw allows an unprivileged user to read root-owned files, potentially leading to privilege escalation. This flaw affects util-linux versions prior to 2.37.4.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS