An issue was discovered in shadow 4.5.
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · None · None
- Fix status
- No fix listed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.0 · NVD. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
An issue was discovered in shadow 4.5. newgidmap (in shadow-utils) is setuid and allows an unprivileged user to be placed in a user namespace where setgroups(2) is permitted. This allows an attacker to remove themselves from a supplementary group, which may allow access to certain filesystem paths if the administrator has used "group blacklisting" (e.g., chmod g-rwx) to restrict access to paths. This flaw effectively reverts a security feature in the kernel (in particular, the /proc/self/setgroups knob) to prevent this sort of privilege escalation.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | all versions | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- — Vendor— Affected all versions Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 1
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:shadow_project:shadow:4.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 4.5 | Vulnerable | Shadow Project |
- cpe:2.3:a:shadow_project:shadow:4.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 4.5 Vulnerable ·Shadow Project
Remediation
No fixed version listed by the sources yet.
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 4 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2018-7169
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-m2px-jr9v-8hhp
References
Advisory 1
More Shadow Project Shadow vulnerabilities
- TI-2023-13773 In Shadow 4.13, it is possible to inject control characters into fields provided to the… CVSS 3.1LOW 3.3
- TI-2017-09165 In shadow before 4.5, the newusers tool could be made to manipulate internal data… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2019-14333 shadow 4.8, in certain circumstances affecting at least Gentoo, Arch Linux, and Void… CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8
- TI-2016-05355 Integer overflow in shadow 4.2.1 allows local users to gain privileges via crafted input to newuidmap. CVSS 3.0HIGH 7.8
Sources
- CVE-2018-7169 · CVE Program
- CVE-2018-7169 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-m2px-jr9v-8hhp · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2018-7169 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences