Ubuntu 16.04 ESM / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS : shadow regression (USN-5745-2)

info Nessus Plugin ID 168281

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing a security update.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 16.04 ESM / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the USN-5745-2 advisory.

USN-5745-1 fixed vulnerabilities in shadow. Unfortunately that update introduced a regression that caused useradd to behave incorrectly in Ubuntu 14.04 ESM, Ubuntu 16.04 ESM, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. This update reverts the security fix pending further investigation.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Original advisory details:

Florian Weimer discovered that shadow was not properly copying and removing

user directory trees, which could lead to a race condition. A local attacker

could possibly use this issue to setup a symlink attack and alter or remove

directories without authorization.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected login, passwd and / or uidmap packages.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-5745-2

Plugin Details

Severity: Info

ID: 168281

File Name: ubuntu_USN-5745-2.nasl

Version: 1.5

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 11/29/2022

Updated: 8/27/2024

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:passwd, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:uidmap, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:login, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:esm

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Debian/dpkg-l, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 11/29/2022

Vulnerability Publication Date: 11/29/2022

Reference Information

USN: 5745-2