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TI-2023-12980 Aliases CVE-2023-28436GHSA-vfgq-g5x8-g595

Non-interactive Tailscale SSH sessions on FreeBSD may use the effective group ID of the tailscaled process

Priority LOW 35CWE-269Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Adjacent network
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Privilege escalation
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
High · High · High
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-269.

Summary

Tailscale is software for using Wireguard and multi-factor authentication (MFA). A vulnerability identified in the implementation of Tailscale SSH starting in version 1.34.0 and prior to prior to 1.38.2 in FreeBSD allows commands to be run with a higher privilege group ID than that specified in Tailscale SSH access rules. A difference in the behavior of the FreeBSD `setgroups` system call from POSIX meant that the Tailscale client running on a FreeBSD-based operating system did not appropriately restrict groups on the host when using Tailscale SSH. When accessing a FreeBSD host over Tailscale SSH, the egid of the tailscaled process was used instead of that of the user specified in Tailscale SSH access rules. Tailscale SSH commands may have been run with a higher privilege group ID than that specified in Tailscale SSH access rules if they met all of the following criteria: the destination node was a FreeBSD device with Tailscale SSH enabled; Tailscale SSH access rules permitted access for non-root users; and a non-interactive SSH session was used. Affected users should upgrade to version 1.38.2 to remediate the issue.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00464 40th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed tailscale (tailscale): 1.38.2tailscale.com (Go): 1.38.2

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
tailscaletailscale1.34.0 to before 1.38.21.38.2Patch availableCNA
—tailscale.com (Go)1.34.0 to before 1.38.21.38.2Patch availableGHSA-vfgq-g5x8-g595
  • tailscale Vendortailscale Affected 1.34.0 to before 1.38.2 Fixed in 1.38.2 Patch available CNA
  • tailscale.com (Go) Vendor— Affected 1.34.0 to before 1.38.2 Fixed in 1.38.2 Patch available GHSA-vfgq-g5x8-g595

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:tailscale:tailscale:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*1.34 to before 1.38.2Vulnerabletailscale
  • cpe:2.3:a:tailscale:tailscale:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 1.34 to before 1.38.2 Vulnerable ·tailscale

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA tailscale (tailscale) Fixed in 1.38.2
  • Fix · GHSA-vfgq-g5x8-g595 tailscale.com (Go) Fixed in 1.38.2 Advisory →

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-28436
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-vfgq-g5x8-g595

References

  • TI-2022-20265 Tailscale Windows daemon is vulnerable to RCE via CSRF CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.6
  • TI-2022-20266 Tailscale daemon is vulnerable to information disclosure via CSRF CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8

Sources