CVE-2023-4641

Shadow-utils: possible password leak during passwd(1) change

MEDIUM 4.7

At a glance

Source: NVD
EPSS: EPSS 0.26 % · percentile 17 (2026-10-28)
State: PUBLISHED
Published: 2023-12-27 15:43 UTC
Updated: 2025-11-03 19:28 UTC
Assigner: redhat
NVD status: Modified

Description

A flaw was found in shadow-utils. When asking for a new password, shadow-utils asks the password twice. If the password fails on the second attempt, shadow-utils fails in cleaning the buffer used to store the first entry. This may allow an attacker with enough access to retrieve the password from the memory.

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-303 — Incorrect Implementation of Authentication Algorithm
CWE-287 — Improper Authentication

References

Scores

Version	Score	Vector	Scored by
CVSS 3.1	MEDIUM 4.7	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N	redhat
CVSS 3.1	MEDIUM 4.7	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N	NVD · secalert@redhat.com (Secondary)
CVSS 3.1	MEDIUM 5.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N	NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)

European references

ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2023-54493
GCVE · GCVE-0-2023-4641

CERT-FR advisories

CERTFR-2026-AVI-1385 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2026-AVI-0218 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2025-AVI-1057 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2025-AVI-0969 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2025-AVI-0864 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans VMware Tanzu · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2025-AVI-0756 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2025-AVI-0524 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans VMware Tanzu · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2024-AVI-0585 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

cpe:2.3:a:shadow-maint:shadow-utils:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* < 4.14.0
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_arm64:8.0_aarch64:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_arm64:9.0_aarch64:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_ibm_z_systems:8.0_s390x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_ibm_z_systems:9.0_s390x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_power_little_endian:8.0_ppc64le:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_power_little_endian:9.0_ppc64le:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_arm_64:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_arm_64:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_ibm_z_systems:8.0_s390x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_ibm_z_systems:9.0_s390x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_power_little_endian:8.0_ppc64le:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_power_little_endian:9.0_ppc64le:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

Affected products

Product	Versions
shadow-utils	unaffected 4.14.0-rc1 < *
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8	unaffected 2:4.6-19.el8 < *
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update Support	unaffected 2:4.6-17.el8_6 < *
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update Support	unaffected 2:4.6-17.el8_8.2 < *
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9	unaffected 2:4.9-8.el9 < *
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Sources

Source	Licence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)	CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)	FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVD	ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)	Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds	Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD