Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-54411

high Nessus Plugin ID 321158

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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.

- Linux-PAM through 1.7.2 contains an observable timing discrepancy (CWE-208) in the pam_userdb module's plaintext-password comparison path in modules/pam_userdb/pam_userdb.c that allows a local or network- adjacent attacker able to repeatedly drive authentication through a calling service to recover the plaintext password of a target account by measuring response-timing differences. The comparison uses strncmp() (or strncasecmp() when PAM_ICASE_ARG is set) preceded by a length-equality check, so the time to reject a candidate depends on the index of the first differing byte and on whether the candidate's length matches the stored password, leaking the password length and individual prefix bytes. The vulnerable path is reached when the administrator configures pam_userdb with crypt=none, with an unrecognized crypt method, or without a crypt= argument, causing the module to store and compare credentials in plaintext.
(CVE-2026-54411)

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

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 321158

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_54411.nasl

Version: 1.6

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 6/16/2026

Updated: 7/6/2026

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3

Percentile: 23.76

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Low

Base Score: 2.1

Temporal Score: 1.8

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-54411

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.2

Temporal Score: 3.9

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

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

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.2

Threat Score: 4.6

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:U

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:14.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:pam, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:pam, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:pam-devel, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:pam-docs, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:pam-libs, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:pam, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.10, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:pam-libs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:pam-docs, cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:pam-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:pam, cpe:/o:centos:centos:7

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

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/14/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-54411

Detections

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