SB20260409103 - SUSE update for Recommended update for shadow



SB20260409103 - SUSE update for Recommended update for shadow

Published: April 9, 2026

Security Bulletin ID SB20260409103
Severity
Low
Patch available
YES
Number of vulnerabilities 2
Exploitation vector Local access
Highest impact Data manipulation

Breakdown by Severity

Low 100%
  • Low
  • Medium
  • High
  • Critical

Description

This security bulletin contains information about 2 secuirty vulnerabilities.


1) Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition (CVE-ID: CVE-2013-4235)

The vulnerability allows a local user to delete or modify arbitrary files on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to a race condition in shadow-utils when executing usermod/userdel operations. A local user with write access to the directory that is being moved or deleted by the usermod/userdel commands can modify or delete arbitrary files on the system.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability may allow an attacker to corrupt arbitrary files on the system and perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.


2) Information disclosure (CVE-ID: CVE-2023-4641)

The vulnerability allows a local user to gain access to potentially sensitive information.

The vulnerability exists due to an error in gpasswd(1), which fails to clean memory properly. 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. A local user with enough access can retrieve the password from the memory.


Remediation

Install update from vendor's website.