In Shadow 4.13, it is possible to inject control characters into fields provided to the SUID program chfn (change finger). Although it is not possible to exploit this directly (e.g., adding a new user fails because \n is in the block list), it is possible to misrepresent the /etc/passwd file when viewed. Use of \r manipulations and Unicode characters to work around blocking of the : character make it possible to give the impression that a new user has been added. In other words, an adversary may be able to convince a system administrator to take the system offline (an indirect, social-engineered denial of service) by demonstrating that “cat /etc/passwd” shows a rogue user account.
OS | Version | Architecture | Package | Version | Filename |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alpine | edge-community | noarch | shadow | < 4.13-r4 | UNKNOWN |
Alpine | 3.18-community | noarch | shadow | < 4.13-r3 | UNKNOWN |
Alpine | 3.19-community | noarch | shadow | < 4.13-r4 | UNKNOWN |
Alpine | 3.20-community | noarch | shadow | < 4.13-r4 | UNKNOWN |