CVE-2023-4641

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

At a glance

Severity: MEDIUM 4.7
EPSS: EPSS 0.26 % · percentile 17 (2026-10-27)
State: PUBLISHED
Published: 2023-12-27
Updated: 2025-11-03
Assigner: redhat
NVD status: Modified

Description

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.

Scores

Version	Score	Vector	Scored by
CVSS 3.1	MEDIUM 4.7	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N	redhat
CVSS 3.1	MEDIUM 4.7	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N	NVD · secalert@redhat.com (Secondary)
CVSS 3.1	MEDIUM 5.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N	NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)

Weaknesses (CWE)

European references

ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2023-54493
GCVE · GCVE-0-2023-4641

CERT-FR advisories

CERTFR-2026-AVI-1385 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2026-AVI-0218 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2025-AVI-1057 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2025-AVI-0969 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2025-AVI-0864 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans VMware Tanzu · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2025-AVI-0756 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2025-AVI-0524 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans VMware Tanzu · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2024-AVI-0585 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

cpe:2.3:a:shadow-maint:shadow-utils:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* < 4.14.0
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_arm64:8.0_aarch64:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_arm64:9.0_aarch64:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_ibm_z_systems:8.0_s390x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_ibm_z_systems:9.0_s390x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_power_little_endian:8.0_ppc64le:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:codeready_linux_builder_for_power_little_endian:9.0_ppc64le:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_arm_64:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_arm_64:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_ibm_z_systems:8.0_s390x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_ibm_z_systems:9.0_s390x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_power_little_endian:8.0_ppc64le:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_power_little_endian:9.0_ppc64le:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

Affected products

Product	Versions
shadow-utils	unaffected 4.14.0-rc1 < *
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8	unaffected 2:4.6-19.el8 < *
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update Support	unaffected 2:4.6-17.el8_6 < *
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update Support	unaffected 2:4.6-17.el8_8.2 < *
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9	unaffected 2:4.9-8.el9 < *
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

References

Sources

Source	Licence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)	CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)	FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVD	ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)	Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds	Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD