Vulnerability identifier: #VU59131

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 4.1 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2013-4235

CWE-ID: CWE-367

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
shadow
Universal components / Libraries / Libraries used by multiple products

Vendor: Mark Florian

Description

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.

Mitigation
Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

shadow: 4.0.0 - 20001016

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External links
http://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2013-4235
http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2013-4235
http://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf9fa47ab66495c78bb4120b0754dd9531ca2ff0430f6685ac9b07772@%3Cdev.mina.apache.org%3E
http://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2013-4235

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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.