Privilege escalation in GNU inetutils

1) Unchecked return value

EUVDB-ID: #VU79879

Risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 5.9 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-40303

CWE-ID: CWE-252 - Unchecked Return Value

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to usage of an unchecked return values of set*id() family functions in ftpd, rcp, rlogin, rsh, rshd, and uucpd while the setuid system call fails when a process is trying to drop privileges before letting an ordinary user control the activities of the process. A local user can abuse this situation and execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Inetutils - GNU network utilities: 1.4.0 - 2.4

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:gnu:inetutils:1.4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:gnu:inetutils:1.4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:gnu:inetutils:1.4.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

External links

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2023-07/msg00000.html
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/inetutils.git/commit/?id=e4e65c03f4c11292a3e40ef72ca3f194c8bffdd6

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.