CVE-2023-40146

critical

Description

A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the /bin/login functionality of Peplink Smart Reader v1.2.0 (in QEMU). A specially crafted command line argument can lead to a limited-shell escape and elevated capabilities. An attacker can authenticate with hard-coded credentials and execute unblocked default busybox functionality to trigger this vulnerability.

References

https://www.talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2023-1868

https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2023-1868

https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240822-0008/

https://forum.peplink.com/t/peplink-security-advisory-smart-reader-firmware-1-2-0-cve-2023-43491-cve-2023-45209-cve-2023-39367-cve-2023-45744-cve-2023-40146/47256

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2024-04-17

Updated: 2025-11-04

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Base Score: 10

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Severity: Critical

CVSS v3

Base Score: 9.8

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Severity: Critical

EPSS

EPSS: 0.00197