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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2017-20002 json

The Debian shadow package before 1:4.5-1 for Shadow incorrectly lists pts/0 and pts/1 as physical terminals in /etc/securetty.

published 2021-03-17 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-11017

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 34%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The Debian shadow package before 1:4.5-1 for Shadow incorrectly lists pts/0 and pts/1 as physical terminals in /etc/securetty. This allows local users to login as password-less users even if they are connected by non-physical means such as SSH (hence bypassing PAM's nullok_secure configuration). This notably affects environments such as virtual machines automatically generated with a default blank root password, allowing all local users to escalate privileges.

Patch / fix

  • shadow Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:4.5-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-20002

Exploit prediction

0.40% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 34% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • bugs.debian.org https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=914957 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.6 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management

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.