CVE-2024-10041
MediumCVSS 4.7Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk18th percentile - higher than 18% of all known CVEs
Summary
A vulnerability was found in PAM where secret information (e.g., passwords) is stored in memory. An attacker can send characters to the victim's standard input (stdin), training the branch predictor to speculatively execute an ROP chain. This could leak passwords, including those from /etc/shadow during authentication.
Risk Assessment
The risk involves potential leakage of sensitive authentication data, which could lead to unauthorized system access and privilege escalation.
Recommendation
Immediately update the PAM library to the latest patched version. Additionally, consider restricting access to the standard input of authentication processes and implementing protections against speculative execution attacks.
Original NVD description (English source)
A vulnerability was found in PAM. The secret information is stored in memory, where the attacker can trigger the victim program to execute by sending characters to its standard input (stdin). As this occurs, the attacker can train the branch predictor to execute an ROP chain speculatively. This flaw could result in leaked passwords, such as those found in /etc/shadow while performing authentications.