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Fencer Vulns
medium 4.7

CVE-2023-4641 json

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

published 2023-12-27 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-54493

cvss
4.7
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 17%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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.

Patch / fix

  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 2:4.6-19.el8
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update Support 2:4.6-17.el8_6
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update Support 2:4.6-17.el8_8.2
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 2:4.9-8.el9
  • shadow Debian 12 1:4.13+dfsg1-1+deb12u1
  • shadow Debian 14, Debian 13 1:4.13+dfsg1-2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-4641

  • shadow Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 1:4.8.1-1ubuntu5.20.04.5
  • shadow Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 1:4.8.1-2ubuntu2.2
  • shadow Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 1:4.1.5.1-1ubuntu9.5+esm4
  • shadow Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 1:4.2-3.1ubuntu5.5+esm4
  • shadow Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 1:4.5-1ubuntu2.5+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-4641

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • shadow-utils RHEL 8 2:4.6-19.el8
  • shadow-utils-subid RHEL 8 2:4.6-19.el8
  • shadow-utils RHEL 9 2:4.9-8.el9
  • shadow-utils-subid RHEL 9 2:4.9-8.el9
  • shadow-utils RHEL 8.8 EUS 2:4.6-17.el8_8.2
  • shadow-utils-subid RHEL 8.8 EUS 2:4.6-17.el8_8.2
  • shadow-utils RHEL 8.6 EUS 2:4.6-17.el8_6
  • shadow-utils-subid RHEL 8.6 EUS 2:4.6-17.el8_6

red hat advisories RHSA-2024:2577RHSA-2024:0417RHSA-2023:7112RHSA-2023:6632

  • shadow SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7, openSUSE Leap 15.6 4.17.2-150600.17.18.1
  • shadow SLE Micro 5.5 4.8.1-150500.3.3.1
  • shadow SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.2 +6 more 4.8.1-150300.4.12.1
  • shadow SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP2-LTSS +4 more 4.6-150100.3.11.1
  • shadow SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP4, SLE Micro 5.3 +2 more 4.8.1-150400.10.12.1
  • shadow SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.2.1-36.6.1
  • shadow SLE Micro 5.4 4.8.1-150400.3.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-RU-2026:1228-1SUSE-SU-2024:1007-1SUSE-SU-2024:1007-2SUSE-SU-2023:4027-1SUSE-SU-2023:4025-1SUSE-SU-2023:4024-1

  • shadow openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.19.2-2.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:10081-1

  • shadow-utils AlmaLinux 8 2:4.6-19.el8
  • shadow-utils-subid AlmaLinux 8 2:4.6-19.el8
  • shadow-utils AlmaLinux 9 2:4.9-8.el9
  • shadow-utils-subid AlmaLinux 9 2:4.9-8.el9

almalinux advisories ALSA-2023:7112ALSA-2023:6632

  • shadow-utils CBL-Mariner 2.0 4.9-14

azure linux advisories AZL-32253

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-4641 updated cvss 4.7

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

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 shadow-utils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 shadow-utils
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) shadow-utils-debuginfo 4.6-19.el8, shadow-utils-debugsource 4.6-19.el8, shadow-utils-subid-devel 4.6-19.el8, shadow-utils-subid-debuginfo 4.6-19.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:7112
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) shadow-utils-debuginfo 4.9-8.el9, shadow-utils-debugsource 4.9-8.el9, shadow-utils-subid-devel 4.9-8.el9, shadow-utils-subid-debuginfo 4.9-8.el9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:6632
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder EUS (v.8.6) shadow-utils-debuginfo 4.6-17.el8_6, shadow-utils-debugsource 4.6-17.el8_6, shadow-utils-subid-devel 4.6-17.el8_6, shadow-utils-subid-debuginfo 4.6-17.el8_6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:0417
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder EUS (v.8.8) shadow-utils-debuginfo 4.6-17.el8_8.2, shadow-utils-debugsource 4.6-17.el8_8.2, shadow-utils-subid-devel 4.6-17.el8_8.2, shadow-utils-subid-debuginfo 4.6-17.el8_8.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2577
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) shadow-utils 4.6-19.el8, shadow-utils-subid 4.6-19.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:7112
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) shadow-utils 4.9-8.el9, shadow-utils-subid 4.9-8.el9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:6632
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.8.6) shadow-utils 4.6-17.el8_6, shadow-utils-subid 4.6-17.el8_6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:0417
show 1 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.8.8) shadow-utils 4.6-17.el8_8.2, shadow-utils-subid 4.6-17.el8_8.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2577

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.26% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 17% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 4.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected products

  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update Support
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update Support
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-303 Incorrect Implementation of Authentication Algorithm
  • CWE-287 Improper Authentication

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.