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Fencer Intel
medium 6.9

CVE-2010-3853 json

pam_namespace.c in the pam_namespace module in Linux-PAM (aka pam) before 1.1.3 uses the environment of the invoking application or service…

published 15y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2010-3832

cvss
6.9
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 35%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

pam_namespace.c in the pam_namespace module in Linux-PAM (aka pam) before 1.1.3 uses the environment of the invoking application or service during execution of the namespace.init script, which might allow local users to gain privileges by running a setuid program that relies on the pam_namespace PAM check, as demonstrated by the sudo program.

Patch / fix

  • pam Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.1.3-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2010-3853

  • pam RHEL 6 1.1.1-4.el6_0.1
  • pam RHEL 5 0.99.6.2-6.el5_5.2

red hat advisories RHSA-2010:0891RHSA-2010:0819

  • pam openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.3.0-3.4

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10405-1

Is CVE-2010-3853 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2010-3853 updated cvss 6.2

pam: pam_namespace executes namespace.init with service's environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) pam 0.99.6.2-6.el5_5.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) pam 0.99.6.2-6.el5_5.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2010:0819
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) pam 1.1.1-4.el6_0.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) pam 1.1.1-4.el6_0.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2010:0891
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) pam 0.99.6.2-6.el5_5.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2010:0819
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) pam 1.1.1-4.el6_0.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) pam 1.1.1-4.el6_0.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) pam 1.1.1-4.el6_0.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) pam 1.1.1-4.el6_0.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2010:0891
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 pam
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.41% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 35% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 6.9 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.