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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2019-20044 json

In Zsh before 5.8, attackers able to execute commands can regain privileges dropped by the --no-PRIVILEGED option.

published 6y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2019-10600

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 41%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In Zsh before 5.8, attackers able to execute commands can regain privileges dropped by the --no-PRIVILEGED option. Zsh fails to overwrite the saved uid, so the original privileges can be restored by executing MODULE_PATH=/dir/with/module zmodload with a module that calls setuid().

Patch / fix

  • zsh zsh 5.8
  • apple ipados 13.5
  • apple iphone_os 13.5
  • apple mac_os_x 10.13.6, 10.14.6, 10.15.5
  • apple tvos 13.4.5
  • apple watchos 6.2.5
  • zsh Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.8-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-20044

  • zsh Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 5.4.2-3ubuntu3.2
  • zsh Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 5.1.1-1ubuntu2.3+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-20044

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

  • zsh RHEL 6 4.3.11-11.el6_10
  • zsh-html RHEL 6 4.3.11-11.el6_10
  • zsh RHEL 8 5.5.1-6.el8_1.2
  • zsh-html RHEL 8 5.5.1-6.el8_1.2
  • zsh RHEL 7 5.0.2-34.el7_7.2
  • zsh-html RHEL 7 5.0.2-34.el7_7.2
  • zsh RHEL 8.0 E4S 5.5.1-6.el8_0.2
  • zsh-html RHEL 8.0 E4S 5.5.1-6.el8_0.2

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:0978RHSA-2020:0892RHSA-2020:0903RHSA-2020:0853

  • zsh SLES 11 SP4-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3 4.3.6-67.9.8.1
  • zsh SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP2-LTSS +14 more 5.6-7.5.1
  • zsh SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +10 more 5.0.5-6.19.1
  • zsh SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15-LTSS +1 more 5.6-3.11.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:14910-1SUSE-SU-2022:0735-1SUSE-SU-2022:0733-1SUSE-SU-2022:0732-1

  • zsh openSUSE Tumbleweed 5.8-7.7
  • zsh openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.6-7.5.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11543-1openSUSE-SU-2022:0735-1

  • zsh-html AlmaLinux 8 5.5.1-6.el8_1.2

almalinux advisories ALSA-2020:0903

  • zsh Rocky Linux 8 5.5.1-6.el8_1.2

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2020:0903

  • zsh Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +10 more 5.8-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2019-20044

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Is CVE-2019-20044 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-2019-20044 updated cvss 7.8

zsh: insecure dropping of privileges when unsetting PRIVILEGED option

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 zsh
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) zsh-html 5.5.1-6.el8_1.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0903
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v. 8.0) zsh-html 5.5.1-6.el8_0.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0978
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) zsh 5.5.1-6.el8_1.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0903
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS E4S (v. 8.0) zsh 5.5.1-6.el8_0.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0978
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) zsh 5.0.2-34.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) zsh-html 5.0.2-34.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) zsh 5.0.2-34.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) zsh-html 5.0.2-34.el7_7.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0853
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) zsh 4.3.11-11.el6_10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) zsh-html 4.3.11-11.el6_10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) zsh 4.3.11-11.el6_10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) zsh-html 4.3.11-11.el6_10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) zsh 4.3.11-11.el6_10
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0892
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) zsh 5.0.2-34.el7_7.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0853
show 6 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) zsh-html 4.3.11-11.el6_10
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0892
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) zsh-html 5.0.2-34.el7_7.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0853
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) zsh 4.3.11-11.el6_10
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0892
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) zsh 5.0.2-34.el7_7.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0853
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) zsh-html 4.3.11-11.el6_10
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0892
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) zsh-html 5.0.2-34.el7_7.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0853

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

0.48% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 41% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

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 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-273 Improper Check for Dropped Privileges

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.