CVE-2026-47274
pam_usb: Uncontrolled search path in pam_usb tools allows privilege escalation via PATH manipulation
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 6.3 Medium
- Published
- May 27, 2026
- Updated
- May 30, 2026
- Reserved
- May 18, 2026
Description
pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. Prior to 0.9.0, multiple pam_usb helper tools resolved external binaries through the PATH environment variable rather than using absolute paths. An attacker who can influence the process environment during PAM authentication or tool execution could substitute malicious binaries. The affected tools are pamusb-check (src/tmux.c), pamusb-conf (tools/pamusb-conf), and pamusb-keyring-unlock-gnome (tools/pamusb-keyring-unlock-gnome). This vulnerability is fixed in 0.9.0.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 6.3 Medium | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N | GitHub_M |
Weaknesses
- CWE-427 Uncontrolled Search Path Element
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
pam_usbmcdope |
|
References
- https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/security/advisories/GHSA-pp29-w28g-r9h9
- https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/commit/1ee8745920388df48d001a8e61ba629071557937
- https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/commit/52a1fd6413b7ffcc1a5b58ce432be42e7bf0dbd0
- https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/commit/993e73d8bebb1d8e62677388de3402b6ec36b600
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