CVE-2023-4641

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

State: Published
Severity: 4.7 Medium
Published: Dec 27, 2023
Updated: Nov 3, 2025
Reserved: Aug 30, 2023

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.

Scores

CVSS	Score	Vector	Source
3.1	4.7 Medium	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N	redhat

Weaknesses

CWE-303 Incorrect Implementation of Authentication Algorithm

Affected Products

Product	Versions
shadow-utils	4.14.0-rc1 and laterNot affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8Red Hat	2:4.6-19.el8 and laterNot affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update SupportRed Hat	2:4.6-17.el8_6 and laterNot affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update SupportRed Hat	2:4.6-17.el8_8.2 and laterNot affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9Red Hat	2:4.9-8.el9 and laterNot affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Red Hat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Red Hat

References

RHSA-2023:6632vendor-advisory
RHSA-2023:7112vendor-advisory
RHSA-2024:0417vendor-advisory
RHSA-2024:2577vendor-advisory
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4641vdb-entry
RHBZ#2215945issue-tracking
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/04/msg00026.html

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