RHEL 7 : libuser (RHSA-2015:1483)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 84977

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Synopsis

The remote Red Hat host is missing one or more security updates for libuser.

Description

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 7 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2015:1483 advisory.

The libuser library implements a standardized interface for manipulating and administering user and group accounts. Sample applications that are modeled after applications from the shadow password suite (shadow-utils) are included in these packages.

Two flaws were found in the way the libuser library handled the /etc/passwd file. A local attacker could use an application compiled against libuser (for example, userhelper) to manipulate the /etc/passwd file, which could result in a denial of service or possibly allow the attacker to escalate their privileges to root. (CVE-2015-3245, CVE-2015-3246)

Red Hat would like to thank Qualys for reporting these issues.

All libuser users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a backported patch to correct this issue.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

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

Solution

Update the RHEL libuser package based on the guidance in RHSA-2015:1483.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 84977

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2015-1483.nasl

Version: 2.25

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Red Hat Local Security Checks

Published: 7/24/2015

Updated: 3/20/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 8.7

Vendor

Vendor Severity: Important

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Temporal Score: 6.3

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2015-3246

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 5.3

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:H/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2015-3245

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:libuser-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:libuser-python, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:libuser, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/RedHat/release, Host/RedHat/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 7/23/2015

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/11/2015

Exploitable With

Core Impact

Metasploit (Libuser roothelper Privilege Escalation)

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2015-3245, CVE-2015-3246

CWE: 138

IAVA: 2015-A-0179

RHSA: 2015:1483

Detections

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