CVE-2023-22809

Public Exploit

Description

In Sudo before 1.9.12p2, the sudoedit (aka -e) feature mishandles extra arguments passed in the user-provided environment variables (SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL, and EDITOR), allowing a local attacker to append arbitrary entries to the list of files to process. This can lead to privilege escalation. Affected versions are 1.8.0 through 1.9.12.p1. The problem exists because a user-specified editor may contain a "--" argument that defeats a protection mechanism, e.g., an EDITOR='vim -- /path/to/extra/file' value.

Category

7.8
CVSS
Severity: High
CVSS 3.1 •
EPSS 50.16% Top 5%
Vendor Advisory debian.org Vendor Advisory fedoraproject.org Vendor Advisory fedoraproject.org Vendor Advisory gentoo.org Vendor Advisory sudo.ws
Affected: n/a n/a
Published at:
Updated at:

References

Link Tags
https://www.synacktiv.com/sites/default/files/2023-01/sudo-CVE-2023-22809.pdf exploit mitigation third party advisory technical description
https://www.sudo.ws/security/advisories/sudoedit_any/ vendor advisory mitigation exploit
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00012.html third party advisory mailing list
https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5321 third party advisory vendor advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/01/19/1 mailing list third party advisory exploit
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2QDGFCGAV5QRJCE6IXRXIS4XJHS57DDH/ vendor advisory mailing list
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230127-0015/ third party advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/G4YNBTTKTRT2ME3NTSXAPTOKYUE47XHZ/ vendor advisory mailing list
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/171644/sudo-1.9.12p1-Privilege-Escalation.html third party advisory vdb entry
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202305-12 third party advisory vendor advisory
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213758 third party advisory
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172509/Sudoedit-Extra-Arguments-Privilege-Escalation.html third party advisory vdb entry
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2023/Aug/21 third party advisory mailing list
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174234/Cisco-ThousandEyes-Enterprise-Agent-Virtual-Appliance-Arbitrary-File-Modification.html third party advisory vdb entry

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of CVE-2023-22809?
CVE-2023-22809 has been scored as a high severity vulnerability.
How to fix CVE-2023-22809?
To fix CVE-2023-22809, make sure you are using an up-to-date version of the affected component(s) by checking the vendor release notes. As for now, there are no other specific guidelines available.
Is CVE-2023-22809 being actively exploited in the wild?
It is possible that CVE-2023-22809 is being exploited or will be exploited in a near future based on public information. According to its EPSS score, there is a ~50% probability that this vulnerability will be exploited by malicious actors in the next 30 days.
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