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Fencer Intel
medium 6.5

CVE-2015-3238 json

The _unix_run_helper_binary function in the pam_unix module in Linux-PAM (aka pam) before 1.2.1, when unable to directly access passwords,…

published 2015-08-24 11 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2015-3294

cvss
6.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.7%
EPSS 2.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 86%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The _unix_run_helper_binary function in the pam_unix module in Linux-PAM (aka pam) before 1.2.1, when unable to directly access passwords, allows local users to enumerate usernames or cause a denial of service (hang) via a large password.

Patch / fix

  • pam Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.1.8-3.2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-3238

  • pam Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1.1.8-1ubuntu2.1
  • pam Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1.1.8-3.2ubuntu2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-3238

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • pam RHEL 6 1.1.1-20.el6_7.1
  • pam RHEL 7 1.1.8-12.el7_1.1
  • pam RHEL 7 1.1.8-12.ael7b_1.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2015:1640

  • pam SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2 +6 more 1.1.8-23.1
  • pam SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP4 1.1.5-0.17.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2017:1398-1SUSE-SU-2016:1645-1

  • pam openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.3.0-3.4

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10405-1

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-2015-3238 updated cvss 6.4

pam: DoS/user enumeration due to blocking pipe in pam_unix module

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 pam
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) pam 1.1.8-12.el7_1.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) pam-devel 1.1.8-12.el7_1.1, pam-debuginfo 1.1.8-12.el7_1.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) pam 1.1.8-12.el7_1.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) pam-devel 1.1.8-12.el7_1.1, pam-debuginfo 1.1.8-12.el7_1.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) pam 1.1.1-20.el6_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) pam-devel 1.1.1-20.el6_7.1, pam-debuginfo 1.1.1-20.el6_7.1
    +6 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) pam 1.1.1-20.el6_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) pam-devel 1.1.1-20.el6_7.1, pam-debuginfo 1.1.1-20.el6_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) pam 1.1.1-20.el6_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) pam 1.1.8-12.el7_1.1, pam 1.1.8-12.ael7b_1.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) pam 1.1.1-20.el6_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) pam 1.1.8-12.el7_1.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1640

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

2.71% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 86% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • trustwave.com https://www.trustwave.com/Resources/Security-Advisories/Advisories/TWSL2015-011/?fid=6551 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • trustwave.com https://www.trustwave.com/Resources/SpiderLabs-Blog/Username-Enumeration-against-OpenSSH-SELinux-with-CVE-2015-3238/ referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 6.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L
NVD 2.0 5.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

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.