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Fencer Intel
low 2.1

CVE-2015-3245 json

Incomplete blacklist vulnerability in the chfn function in libuser before 0.56.13-8 and 0.60 before 0.60-7, as used in the userhelper progr…

published 2015-08-11 11 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2015-3300

cvss
2.1
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
5.4%
EPSS 5.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 92%
public exploits
3
Metasploit, Exploit-DB

Summary

Incomplete blacklist vulnerability in the chfn function in libuser before 0.56.13-8 and 0.60 before 0.60-7, as used in the userhelper program in the usermode package, allows local users to cause a denial of service (/etc/passwd corruption) via a newline character in the GECOS field.

Patch / fix

  • libuser Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:0.62~dfsg-0.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-3245

  • libuser Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 1:0.56.9.dfsg.1-1.2ubuntu2+esm1
  • libuser Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 1:0.60~dfsg-1.2ubuntu0.1~esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-3245

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

  • libuser RHEL 6 0.56.13-8.el6_7
  • libuser-python RHEL 6 0.56.13-8.el6_7
  • libuser RHEL 7 0.60-7.el7_1
  • libuser RHEL 7 0.60-7.ael7b_1
  • libuser-python RHEL 7 0.60-7.el7_1
  • libuser-python RHEL 7 0.60-7.ael7b_1

red hat advisories RHSA-2015:1482RHSA-2015:1483

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-2015-3245 updated cvss 1.7

libuser: does not filter newline characters in the GECOS field

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 libuser
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) libuser 0.60-7.el7_1, libuser-python 0.60-7.el7_1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) libuser-devel 0.60-7.el7_1, libuser-debuginfo 0.60-7.el7_1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) libuser 0.60-7.el7_1, libuser-python 0.60-7.el7_1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) libuser-devel 0.60-7.el7_1, libuser-debuginfo 0.60-7.el7_1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1483
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) libuser 0.56.13-8.el6_7, libuser-python 0.56.13-8.el6_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) libuser-devel 0.56.13-8.el6_7, libuser-debuginfo 0.56.13-8.el6_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) libuser 0.56.13-8.el6_7, libuser-python 0.56.13-8.el6_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) libuser-devel 0.56.13-8.el6_7, libuser-debuginfo 0.56.13-8.el6_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) libuser 0.56.13-8.el6_7, libuser-python 0.56.13-8.el6_7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1482
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) libuser 0.60-7.el7_1, libuser 0.60-7.ael7b_1, libuser-python 0.60-7.el7_1, libuser-python 0.60-7.ael7b_1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1483
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) libuser-devel 0.56.13-8.el6_7, libuser-debuginfo 0.56.13-8.el6_7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1482
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) libuser-devel 0.60-7.el7_1, libuser-devel 0.60-7.ael7b_1, libuser-debuginfo 0.60-7.el7_1, libuser-debuginfo 0.60-7.ael7b_1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1483
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) libuser 0.56.13-8.el6_7, libuser-python 0.56.13-8.el6_7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1482
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) libuser 0.60-7.el7_1, libuser-python 0.60-7.el7_1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1483
show 2 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) libuser-devel 0.56.13-8.el6_7, libuser-debuginfo 0.56.13-8.el6_7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1482
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) libuser-devel 0.60-7.el7_1, libuser-debuginfo 0.60-7.el7_1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1483

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

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (Metasploit exploit/linux/local/libuser_roothelper_priv_esc)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

5.39% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 92% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

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.