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TI-2019-14333 Aliases CVE-2019-19882GHSA-x9jp-6hm9-x2xg

shadow 4.8, in certain circumstances affecting at least Gentoo, Arch Linux, and Void…

Priority LOW 35CWE-732Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
High · High · High
Fix status
No fix listed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA.

Summary

shadow 4.8, in certain circumstances affecting at least Gentoo, Arch Linux, and Void Linux, allows local users to obtain root access because setuid programs are misconfigured. Specifically, this affects shadow 4.8 when compiled using --with-libpam but without explicitly passing --disable-account-tools-setuid, and without a PAM configuration suitable for use with setuid account management tools. This combination leads to account management tools (groupadd, groupdel, groupmod, useradd, userdel, usermod) that can easily be used by unprivileged local users to escalate privileges to root in multiple ways. This issue became much more relevant in approximately December 2019 when an unrelated bug was fixed (i.e., the chmod calls to suidusbins were fixed in the upstream Makefile which is now included in the release version 4.8).

Why it matters now

EPSS 0.00515 44th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Public exploit Yes 2 exploit referencesTagged by NVD
Fix No fix listed No fixed version in the sources yet

SSVC decision points

Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
——all versions—No fix listedCNA
  • — Vendor— Affected all versions Fixed in — No fix listed CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:shadow_project:shadow:4.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*4.8VulnerableShadow Project
  • cpe:2.3:a:shadow_project:shadow:4.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 4.8 Vulnerable ·Shadow Project

Remediation

No fixed version listed by the sources yet.

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

Not affected: 5 products
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Red Hat Virtualization 4

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2019-19882
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-x9jp-6hm9-x2xg

References

Exploit 2

Patch 3

Advisory 1

  • 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-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
  • TI-2018-05191 An issue was discovered in shadow 4.5. CVSS 3.0MEDIUM 5.3

Sources

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences