CVE-2023-22809

high-risk
Published 2023-01-18

In Sudo before 1.9.12p2, the sudoedit (aka -e) feature mishandles extra arguments passed in the user-provided environment variables (SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL, and EDITOR), allowing a local attacker to append arbitrary entries to the list of files to process. This can lead to privilege escalation. Affected versions are 1.8.0 through 1.9.12.p1. The problem exists because a user-specified editor may contain a "--" argument that defeats a protection mechanism, e.g., an EDITOR='vim -- /path/to/extra/file' value.

Do I need to act?

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48.0% chance of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS score — higher than 52% of all CVEs
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Not on CISA KEV list
No confirmed active exploitation reported to CISA
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1 public exploit available
51217
?
Patch status unknown
Check vendor advisories for fix availability and mitigation guidance
7
CVSS 7.8/10 High
LOCAL / LOW complexity

Affected Products (8)

Affected Vendors

Debian Apple Sudo Project Fedoraproject

References (28)

Third Party Advisory http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/171644/sudo-1.9.12p1-Privilege-Escalation.h...
Third Party Advisory http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172509/Sudoedit-Extra-Arguments-Privilege-E...
Third Party Advisory http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174234/Cisco-ThousandEyes-Enterprise-Agent-...
Mailing List http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2023/Aug/21
Exploit http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/01/19/1
Mailing List https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00012.html
Mailing List https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedorapro...
Mailing List https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedorapro...
Third Party Advisory https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202305-12
Third Party Advisory https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230127-0015/
Third Party Advisory https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213758
Third Party Advisory https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5321
Exploit https://www.sudo.ws/security/advisories/sudoedit_any/
Exploit https://www.synacktiv.com/sites/default/files/2023-01/sudo-CVE-2023-22809.pdf
Third Party Advisory http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/171644/sudo-1.9.12p1-Privilege-Escalation.h...
Third Party Advisory http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172509/Sudoedit-Extra-Arguments-Privilege-E...
Third Party Advisory http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174234/Cisco-ThousandEyes-Enterprise-Agent-...
Mailing List http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2023/Aug/21
Exploit http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/01/19/1
Mailing List https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00012.html
and 8 more references
56
/ 100
high-risk
Severity 24/34 · High
Exploitability 18/34 · Moderate
Exposure 14/34 · Moderate