CVE-2026-48985
pam_usb: NULL Dereference Crash in pusb_is_loginctl_local when loginctl Returns Empty Remote Field
Description
pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. In versions 0.9.1 and below, pusb_is_loginctl_local() can cause a NULL dereference crash when parsing loginctl output. The function calls popen() and reads the result; if the Remote field is only a newline, fgets() succeeds but strtok_r(buf, "\n", &saveptr) returns NULL. A subsequent strcmp(is_remote, "no") then dereferences NULL, causing undefined behavior (typically SIGSEGV) and crashing the PAM module. This can crash the authenticating process (e.g., sudo, login) and, depending on PAM stack configuration, deny access for all users of the affected service. This issue has been fixed in version 0.9.2.
INFO
Published Date :
June 18, 2026, 5:30 p.m.
Last Modified :
June 18, 2026, 5:30 p.m.
Remotely Exploit :
No
Source :
GitHub_M
Affected Products
The following products are affected by CVE-2026-48985
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.
No affected product recoded yet
CVSS Scores
| Score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability Score | Impact Score | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM | MITRE-CVE |
Solution
- Update pam_usb to version 0.9.2 or later.
- Restart the affected PAM module.
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