#VU6432 Race condition in shadow - CVE-2017-2616

Vulnerability identifier: #VU6432

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 4.3 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2017-2616

CWE-ID: CWE-362

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
shadow
Universal components / Libraries / Libraries used by multiple products

Vendor: Mark Florian

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to race condition within shadow-utils implementation. A local user can kill other processes on the system with root privileges.

Mitigation
Install update from GIT repository.

Vulnerable software versions

shadow: 4.2.1

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External links
https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow/commit/08fd4b69e84364677a10e519ccb25b71710ee686

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.