The PAM module pam_cap.so of libcap configuration supports group names starting with “@”, during actual parsing, configurations not starting with “@” are incorrectly recognized as group names. This may result in nonintended users being granted an inherited capability set, potentially leading to security risks. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to achieve local privilege escalation on systems where /etc/security/capability.conf is used to configure user inherited privileges by constructing specific usernames.

It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ALAS2023-2025-897 advisory.

    The PAM module pam_cap.so of libcap configuration supports group names starting with @, during actual     parsing, configurations not starting with @ are incorrectly recognized as group names. This may result     in nonintended users being granted an inherited capability set, potentially leading to security risks.
    Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to achieve local privilege escalation on systems where     /etc/security/capability.conf is used to configure user inherited privileges by constructing specific     usernames. (CVE-2025-1390)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the tested product security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The version of libcap installed on the remote host is prior to 2.54-1. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ALAS2-2025-2796 advisory.

    The PAM module pam_cap.so of libcap configuration supports group names starting with @, during actual     parsing, configurations not starting with @ are incorrectly recognized as group names. This may result     in nonintended users being granted an inherited capability set, potentially leading to security risks.
    Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to achieve local privilege escalation on systems where     /etc/security/capability.conf is used to configure user inherited privileges by constructing specific     usernames. (CVE-2025-1390)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the tested product security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Debian 11 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the dla-4092 advisory.

    - -------------------------------------------------------------------------     Debian LTS Advisory DLA-4092-1                debian-lts@lists.debian.org     https://www.debian.org/lts/security/                           Chris Lamb     March 26, 2025                                https://wiki.debian.org/LTS
    - -------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Package        : libcap2     Version        : 1:2.44-1+deb11u1     CVE IDs        : CVE-2023-2602 CVE-2023-2603 CVE-2025-1390     Debian Bugs    : 1036114 1098318

    It was discovered that there were three issues in libcap2, a library     for managing kernel capabilities; that is, partitioning the     powerful single root privilege into a set of distinct privileges,     typically used to limit any damage if a process running as the root     user is exploited. The three issues are as follows:

    * CVE-2023-2602: A vulnerability was found in the pthread_create()       function. This issue could have allowed a malicious actor in order       to exhaust the system's memory.

    * CVE-2023-2603: An issue was found in the _libcap_strdup function       which could have led to an integer overflow if the input string was       close to 4GiB.

    * CVE-2025-1390: The pam_cap.so PAM module supports group names       starting with @ but during parsing, configurations not starting       with @ were incorrectly recognised as group names. This       user-group confusion may have resulted in unintended users being       granted an inherited capability set, potentially leading to       security risks. Attackers could have exploited this vulnerability       to achieve local privilege escalation on systems where       capability.conf was used to configure user inherited privileges by       constructing specific usernames.

    For Debian 11 bullseye, these problems have been fixed in version     1:2.44-1+deb11u1.

    We recommend that you upgrade your libcap2 packages.

    For the detailed security status of libcap2 please refer to     its security tracker page at:
    https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/libcap2

    Further information about Debian LTS security advisories, how to apply     these updates to your system and frequently asked questions can be     found at: https://wiki.debian.org/LTS

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Debian security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The version of libcap installed on the remote Azure Linux 3.0 host is prior to tested version. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the CVE-2025-1390 advisory.

  - The PAM module pam_cap.so of libcap configuration supports group names starting with @, during actual     parsing, configurations not starting with @ are incorrectly recognized as group names. This May result     in nonintended users being granted an inherited capability set, potentially leading to security risks.
    Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to achieve local privilege escalation on systems where     /etc/security/capability.conf is used to configure user inherited privileges by constructing specific     usernames. (CVE-2025-1390)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - The PAM module pam_cap.so of libcap configuration supports group names starting with @, during actual     parsing, configurations not starting with @ are incorrectly recognized as group names. This may result     in nonintended users being granted an inherited capability set, potentially leading to security risks.
    Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to achieve local privilege escalation on systems where     /etc/security/capability.conf is used to configure user inherited privileges by constructing specific     usernames. (CVE-2025-1390)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

The version of libcap installed on the remote CBL Mariner 2.0 host is prior to tested version. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the CVE-2025-1390 advisory.

  - The PAM module pam_cap.so of libcap configuration supports group names starting with @, during actual     parsing, configurations not starting with @ are incorrectly recognized as group names. This May result     in nonintended users being granted an inherited capability set, potentially leading to security risks.
    Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to achieve local privilege escalation on systems where     /etc/security/capability.conf is used to configure user inherited privileges by constructing specific     usernames. (CVE-2025-1390)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Ubuntu 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS / 24.10 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the USN-7287-1 advisory.

    Tianjia Zhang discovered the libcap2 PAM module pam_cap incorrectly handled parsing group names in the     configuration file. This could result in certain users being granted capabilities, contrary to     expectations.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
233588	Amazon Linux 2023 : libcap, libcap-devel, libcap-static (ALAS2023-2025-897)	Nessus	Amazon Linux Local Security Checks	medium
233375	Amazon Linux 2 : libcap (ALAS-2025-2796)	Nessus	Amazon Linux Local Security Checks	medium
233360	Debian dla-4092 : libcap-dev - security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	critical
233065	Azure Linux 3.0 Security Update: libcap (CVE-2025-1390)	Nessus	Azure Linux Local Security Checks	medium
231517	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-1390	Nessus	Misc.	medium
216893	CBL Mariner 2.0 Security Update: libcap (CVE-2025-1390)	Nessus	MarinerOS Local Security Checks	medium
216701	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS / 24.10 : libcap2 vulnerability (USN-7287-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	medium

Detections

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CVE-2025-1390

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Tenable Plugins

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critical

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medium

medium