In Shadow 4.13, it is possible to inject control characters into fields provided to the SUID program chfn (change finger). Although it is not possible to exploit this directly (e.g., adding a new user fails because \n is in the block list), it is possible to misrepresent the /etc/passwd file when viewed. Use of \r manipulations and Unicode characters to work around blocking of the : character make it possible to give the impression that a new user has been added. In other words, an adversary may be able to convince a system administrator to take the system offline (an indirect, social-engineered denial of service) by demonstrating that "cat /etc/passwd" shows a rogue user account.
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Linux | — | Upgrade shadow | Aug 22, 2024 | Apr 14, 2023 |
| Debian | — | Upgrade shadow | Apr 21, 2025 | Apr 14, 2023 |
| Dell Powerstore Dsa2023366 | — | Upgrade Dell PowerStoreOS to the latest version | Oct 23, 2025 | Oct 5, 2023 |
| Huawei Euleros 2_0_sp10 | — | Upgrade shadow | Jul 18, 2023 | Apr 14, 2023 |
| Huawei Euleros 2_0_sp11 | — | Upgrade shadow | Jan 10, 2024 | Apr 14, 2023 |
| Huawei Euleros 2_0_sp9 | — | Upgrade shadow | Jul 10, 2023 | Apr 14, 2023 |
| Suse | — | Upgrade shadowUpgrade login_defs | May 1, 2023 | Apr 14, 2023 |
| Ubuntu | — | No solution exists | Jun 26, 2025 | Apr 14, 2023 |
| Vmware Photon_os | — | Use 'tdnf update' to upgrade all packages to the latest version. | Jan 20, 2025 | Apr 14, 2023 |
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