CVE-2023-40303 — GNU inetutils before 2
GNU inetutils before 2.5 may allow privilege escalation because of unchecked return values of set*id() family functions in ftpd, rcp, rlogin, rsh, rshd, and uucpd. This is, for example, relevant if the setuid system call fails when a process is trying to drop privileges before le
Published
2023-08-14T00:00:00.000Z
Last modified
2024-08-02T18:31:53.432Z
01What is this vulnerability?
GNU inetutils before 2.5 may allow privilege escalation because of unchecked return values of set*id() family functions in ftpd, rcp, rlogin, rsh, rshd, and uucpd. This is, for example, relevant if the setuid system call fails when a process is trying to drop privileges before letting an ordinary user control the activities of the process.
02Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|
| n | a / n/a | n/a |
03Active exploitation status
Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.
04Recommended remediation
- Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
- Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
- Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.
05Technical details
For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.
06Detection signatures
Open the Sigma generator with a pre-filled prompt for this CVE to draft a starting detection in your stack of choice:
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07Related CVEs
No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.
08Timeline
- Published: 2023-08-14T00:00:00.000Z
- Last modified: 2024-08-02T18:31:53.432Z
09References
- git.savannah.gnu.org — https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/inetutils.git/commit/?id=e4e65c03f4c11292a3e40…
- lists.gnu.org — https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2023-07/msg00000.html
- ftp.gnu.org — https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/inetutils/
- lists.debian.org — https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/10/msg00013.html
- www.openwall.com — http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/12/30/4
- lists.debian.org — https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/10/msg00013.html
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