Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 : 0274: pam (ALINUX3-SA-2026:0274)

high Nessus Plugin ID 342099

Synopsis

The remote Alibaba Cloud Linux host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ALINUX3-SA-2026:0274 advisory.

Package updates are available for Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 that fix the following vulnerabilities:

CVE-2026-54411:
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.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Alibaba Cloud Linux 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 pam and / or pam-devel packages.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 342099

File Name: alinux3_sa_2026-0274.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Family: Alibaba Cloud Linux Local Security Checks

Published: 9/1/2026

Updated: 9/1/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3

Percentile: 23.75

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.4

Temporal Score: 4

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-54411

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.9

Temporal Score: 5.2

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

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/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:alibabacloud:alibaba_cloud_linux_3, p-cpe:/a:alibabacloud:alibaba_cloud_linux_3:pam-devel, p-cpe:/a:alibabacloud:alibaba_cloud_linux_3:pam

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/Alibaba/release, Host/Alibaba/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 8/28/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/14/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-54411

Detections

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