Detections
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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2015-3246

medium Nessus Plugin ID 218768

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

 - libuser before 0.56.13-8 and 0.60 before 0.60-7, as used in the userhelper program in the usermode package, directly modifies /etc/passwd, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (inconsistent file state) by causing an error during the modification. NOTE: this issue can be combined with CVE-2015-3245 to gain privileges. (CVE-2015-3246)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2015-3246

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2015-3246

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 218768

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2015_3246.nasl

Version: 1.11

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/4/2025

Updated: 8/27/2026

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 7.6

Percentile: 98.37

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Temporal Score: 7.2

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2015-3246

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.1

Temporal Score: 5.1

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:H/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.04, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.10, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libuser, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:libuser

Required KB Items: Host/OS/identifier, Host/cpu, Host/local_checks_enabled, global_settings/vendor_unpatched

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 7/23/2015

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability Due Dates: 9/9/2026

Exploitable With

Core Impact

Metasploit (Libuser roothelper Privilege Escalation)

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2015-3246