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Known Exploited Vulnerability
7.2
HIGH CVSS 2.0
CVE-2015-3246
Red Hat Libuser Race Condition Vulnerability - [Actively Exploited]
Overview
Description

libuser before 0.56.13-8 and 0.60 before 0.60-7, as used in the userhelper program in the usermode package, directly modifies /etc/passwd, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (inconsistent file state) by causing an error during the modification. NOTE: this issue can be combined with CVE-2015-3245 to gain privileges.

Details
INFO

Published Date :

Aug. 11, 2015, 2:59 p.m.

Last Modified :

Aug. 27, 2026, 4:16 a.m.

Remotely Exploit :

No

Source :

[email protected]
CISA Notification
CISA KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities)

For the benefit of the cybersecurity community and network defenders—and to help every organization better manage vulnerabilities and keep pace with threat activity—CISA maintains the authoritative source of vulnerabilities that have been exploited in the wild.

Description :

Red Hat libuser contains a race condition vulnerability that allows authenticated local users to corrupt the /etc/passwd file to cause a denial of service or privilege escalation.

Required Action :

Apply mitigations in accordance with vendor instructions, ensuring compliance with CISA’s BOD 26-04 Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk (see URL in Notes) guidance and CISA’s “Forensics Triage Requirements” (see URL in Notes). Follow applicable BOD 26-04 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Stakeholders are responsible for evaluating each asset's internet exposure and ensuring adherence to BOD 26-04 patching guidelines.

Known Ransomware Campaign Use:

Unknown

Notes :

This vulnerability affects an open-source component, third-party library, protocol, or proprietary implementation that could be used by different products. For more information, please see: https://access.redhat.com/articles/1537873 ; BOD 26-04: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/directives/bod-26-04-prioritizing-security-updates-based-risk ; Forensics Triage Requirements: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/directives/bod-26-04-implementation-guidance-prioritizing-security-updates-based-risk ; https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-3246

Impact
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2015-3246 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

ID Vendor Product Action
1 Redhat enterprise_linux
2 Redhat libuser
1 Opensuse opensuse
1 Libuser_project libuser
: Total Affected Vendor : 3 | Products : 4
Scoring
CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
CVSS 2.0 HIGH [email protected]
CVSS 3.1 MEDIUM 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
Solution
This vulnerability can be remediated by updating the libuser packages to a fixed version.
  • Update the affected libuser packages to a patched version.
  • Apply available security updates for libuser.
References
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to CVE-2015-3246.

URL Resource
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-August/163044.html Broken Link
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-July/162947.html Broken Link
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-08/msg00000.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1482.html Vendor Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1483.html Vendor Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76022 Third Party Advisory
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1033040 Third Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/articles/1537873 Mitigation Vendor Advisory
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44633/ Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://www.qualys.com/2015/07/23/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246.txt Exploit
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-August/163044.html Broken Link
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-July/162947.html Broken Link
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-08/msg00000.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1482.html Vendor Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1483.html Vendor Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76022 Third Party Advisory
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1033040 Third Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/articles/1537873 Mitigation Vendor Advisory
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44633/ Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://www.qualys.com/2015/07/23/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246.txt Exploit
https://blog.talosintelligence.com/uat-10147-chinese-speaking-adversary-integrates-agentic-ai-into-post-compromise-operations/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2015-3246 US Government Resource
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2015-3246 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2015-3246 weaknesses.

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2015-3246 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

  • The Hacker News
CISA Adds Six Exploited Flaws to KEV, Including NetScaler, Linux, and SQL Server Bugs

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday added six flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, including a high-severity security vulnerability imp ... Read more

Published Date: Aug 27, 2026 (4 days, 3 hours ago)
  • TheCyberThrone
CISA Adds Six Actively Exploited Vulnerabilities to KEV on Aug 26 2026

On August 26, 2026, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added six vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog, citing evidence of active exploitat ... Read more

Published Date: Aug 27, 2026 (4 days, 7 hours ago)
  • The Hacker News
UAT-10147 Uses AI to Scale Server Attacks, Deploys SPECTRE With EDR Bypass and Linux Rootkit

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a Chinese-speaking cybercrime group dubbed UAT-10147 that's targeting Windows and Linux web servers globally across the education, media, technology ... Read more

Published Date: Aug 24, 2026 (1 week ago)

Results are limited to the first 20 news articles due to potential performance issues.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2015-3246 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • CVE Modified by 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    Aug. 27, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Changed SSVC {'id': 'CVE-2015-3246', 'role': 'CISA Coordinator', 'options': [{'exploitation': 'active'}, {'automatable': 'no'}, {'technicalImpact': 'partial'}], 'version': '2.0.3', 'timestamp': '2026-08-26T17:44:11.022663Z'} {'id': 'CVE-2015-3246', 'role': 'CISA Coordinator', 'options': [{'exploitation': 'active'}, {'automatable': 'no'}, {'technicalImpact': 'total'}], 'version': '2.0.3', 'timestamp': '2026-08-26T00:00:00+00:00'}
  • Modified Analysis by [email protected]

    Aug. 26, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added CPE Configuration OR *cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    Added CPE Configuration OR *cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:opensuse:13.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    Changed CPE Configuration OR *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-3:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions up to (including) 0.56.13-5 *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-6:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-5:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-4:*:*:*:*:*:*:* OR *cpe:2.3:a:libuser_project:libuser:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions up to (excluding) 0.56.13-8 *cpe:2.3:a:libuser_project:libuser:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions from (including) 0.60 up to (excluding) 0.60-7
    Added Reference Type Red Hat, Inc.: http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-August/163044.html Types: Broken Link
    Added Reference Type Red Hat, Inc.: http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-July/162947.html Types: Broken Link
    Added Reference Type Red Hat, Inc.: http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-08/msg00000.html Types: Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
    Added Reference Type Red Hat, Inc.: http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1482.html Types: Vendor Advisory
    Added Reference Type Red Hat, Inc.: http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1483.html Types: Vendor Advisory
    Added Reference Type Red Hat, Inc.: http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76022 Types: Third Party Advisory
    Added Reference Type Red Hat, Inc.: http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1033040 Types: Third Party Advisory
    Added Reference Type Red Hat, Inc.: https://access.redhat.com/articles/1537873 Types: Mitigation, Vendor Advisory
    Added Reference Type CVE: http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-August/163044.html Types: Broken Link
    Added Reference Type CVE: http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-July/162947.html Types: Broken Link
    Added Reference Type CISA-ADP: https://blog.talosintelligence.com/uat-10147-chinese-speaking-adversary-integrates-agentic-ai-into-post-compromise-operations/ Types: Third Party Advisory
    Added Reference Type CISA-ADP: https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2015-3246 Types: US Government Resource
    Added Reference Type Red Hat, Inc.: https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44633/ Types: Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
    Added Reference Type CVE: http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-08/msg00000.html Types: Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
    Added Reference Type CVE: http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1482.html Types: Vendor Advisory
    Added Reference Type CVE: http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1483.html Types: Vendor Advisory
    Added Reference Type CVE: http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76022 Types: Third Party Advisory
    Added Reference Type CVE: http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1033040 Types: Third Party Advisory
    Added Reference Type CVE: https://access.redhat.com/articles/1537873 Types: Mitigation, Vendor Advisory
    Added Reference Type CVE: https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44633/ Types: Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
  • CVE CISA KEV Update by 9119a7d8-5eab-497f-8521-727c672e3725

    Aug. 26, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Date Added 2026-08-26
    Added Due Date 2026-08-26
    Added Required Action 2026-08-26
    Added Vulnerability Name 2026-08-26
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Aug. 26, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-August/163044.html
    Added Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-July/162947.html
    Added Reference http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-08/msg00000.html
    Added Reference http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1482.html
    Added Reference http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1483.html
    Added Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76022
    Added Reference http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1033040
    Added Reference https://access.redhat.com/articles/1537873
    Added Reference https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44633/
    Added Reference https://www.qualys.com/2015/07/23/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246.txt
    Removed Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-August/163044.html
    Removed Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-July/162947.html
    Removed Reference http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-08/msg00000.html
    Removed Reference http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1482.html
    Removed Reference http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1483.html
    Removed Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76022
    Removed Reference http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1033040
    Removed Reference https://access.redhat.com/articles/1537873
    Removed Reference https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44633/
    Removed Reference https://www.qualys.com/2015/07/23/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246.txt
    Removed Reference Type https://www.qualys.com/2015/07/23/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246.txt Types: Exploit
  • CVE Modified by af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108

    Aug. 26, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-August/163044.html
    Added Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-July/162947.html
    Added Reference http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-08/msg00000.html
    Added Reference http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1482.html
    Added Reference http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1483.html
    Added Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76022
    Added Reference http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1033040
    Added Reference https://access.redhat.com/articles/1537873
    Added Reference https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44633/
    Added Reference https://www.qualys.com/2015/07/23/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246.txt
    Removed Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-August/163044.html
    Removed Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-July/162947.html
    Removed Reference http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-08/msg00000.html
    Removed Reference http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1482.html
    Removed Reference http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1483.html
    Removed Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76022
    Removed Reference http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1033040
    Removed Reference https://access.redhat.com/articles/1537873
    Removed Reference https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44633/
    Removed Reference https://www.qualys.com/2015/07/23/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246.txt
    Removed Reference Type https://www.qualys.com/2015/07/23/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246.txt Types: Exploit
  • CVE Modified by 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    Aug. 26, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added CVSS V3.1 AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
    Added CWE CWE-367
    Added Reference https://blog.talosintelligence.com/uat-10147-chinese-speaking-adversary-integrates-agentic-ai-into-post-compromise-operations/
    Added Reference https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2015-3246
    Added SSVC {'id': 'CVE-2015-3246', 'role': 'CISA Coordinator', 'options': [{'exploitation': 'active'}, {'automatable': 'no'}, {'technicalImpact': 'partial'}], 'version': '2.0.3', 'timestamp': '2026-08-26T17:44:11.022663Z'}
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Jun. 17, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Affected [{'vendor': 'n/a', 'product': 'n/a', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': 'n/a'}]}]
  • Status Change by [email protected]

    May. 06, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
  • CVE Modified by af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108

    Nov. 21, 2024

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-August/163044.html
    Added Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-July/162947.html
    Added Reference http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-08/msg00000.html
    Added Reference http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1482.html
    Added Reference http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1483.html
    Added Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76022
    Added Reference http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1033040
    Added Reference https://access.redhat.com/articles/1537873
    Added Reference https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44633/
    Added Reference https://www.qualys.com/2015/07/23/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246.txt
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    May. 14, 2024

    Action Type Old Value New Value
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    May. 20, 2018

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44633/ [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Sep. 21, 2017

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1033040 [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Dec. 24, 2016

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-July/162947.html [No Types Assigned]
    Added Reference http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-August/163044.html [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Nov. 28, 2016

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76022 [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Translated by [email protected]

    Aug. 26, 2015

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Removed Translation Vulnerabilidad en libuser en versiones anteriores 0.56.13-8 y 0.60 anterior a 0.60.7, como se usa en el programa userhelper en el paquete usermode, directamente modifica /etc/passwd, lo que permite a usuarios locales provocar una denegación de servicio (estado de archivo inconsistente) al provocar un error durante la modificación. NOTA: este problema se puede combinar con CVE-2015-3245 para obtener privilegios.
    Added Translation Vulnerabilidad en libuser en versiones anteriores 0.56.13-8 y 0.60 en versiones anteriores a 0.60.7, tal como se utiliza en el programa userhelper en el paquete usermode, modifica directamente /etc/passwd, lo que permite a usuarios locales provocar una denegación de servicio (estado de archivo inconsistente) causando un error durante la modificación. NOTA: este problema se puede combinar con CVE-2015-3245 para obtener privilegios.
  • Modified Analysis by [email protected]

    Aug. 11, 2015

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added CPE Configuration Configuration 1 OR *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-6:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-5:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-4:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-3:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.60-1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libuser:0.56.13-5:*:*:*:*:*:*:* (and previous)
    Added CVSS V2 (AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C)
    Changed Reference Type https://www.qualys.com/2015/07/23/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246.txt No Types Assigned https://www.qualys.com/2015/07/23/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246/cve-2015-3245-cve-2015-3246.txt Exploit
    Added CWE CWE-264
  • Initial Analysis by [email protected]

    Aug. 11, 2015

    Action Type Old Value New Value
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.
CVSS
Vulnerability Scoring Details
Base CVSS Score: 5.1
Attack Vector
Attack Complexity
Privileges Required
User Interaction
Scope
Confidentiality Impact
Integrity Impact
Availability Impact
Base CVSS Score: 7.2
Access Vector
Access Complexity
Authentication
Confidentiality Impact
Integrity Impact
Availability Impact
EPSS
Exploit Prediction

EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days.

8.80 }} 1.71%

score

0.94788

percentile