CVE-2026-48065

pam_usb: Unchecked integer multiplication before xmalloc() in conf.c allows heap-based buffer overflow on 32-bit targets

State
Published
Severity
6.7 Medium
Published
May 27, 2026
Updated
May 28, 2026
Reserved
May 20, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. Prior to 0.9.1, src/conf.c allocates heap memory proportional to n_devices, a count derived from libxml2 XPath evaluation of the config file, without first enforcing an upper bound. On 32-bit targets (armv7l, i686 -- both listed in the project Makefile), the multiplication n_devices * sizeof(t_pusb_device) wraps around size_t, causing xmalloc() to receive a very small size. Because xmalloc() only calls abort() on NULL return, a small-but-non-NULL allocation is accepted, and subsequent array writes overflow the heap. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.9.1.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.16.7 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HGitHub_M

Weaknesses

  • CWE-122 Heap-based Buffer Overflow
  • CWE-190 Integer Overflow or Wraparound

Affected Products

ProductVersions
pam_usbmcdope
  • < 0.9.1Affected

References

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