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National Vulnerability Database

National Vulnerability Database

NVD

National Vulnerability Database
  1. Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-48984 Detail

Description

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. In versions 0.9.1 and below, the xfree() memory release helper in calls free() without first zeroing the buffer contents, releasing heap-allocated buffers containing sensitive data — including one-time pad bytes read from disk — without clearing, leaving the sensitive content in freed heap memory until it happens to be overwritten by a subsequent allocation. On a system where a use-after-free condition exists, or where a heap inspection primitive becomes available, this could allow recovery of pad values or other authentication material from freed memory regions. This is a defence-in-depth requirement consistent with prior hardening work in this codebase (GHSA-vx6f-rrqr-j87c applied explicit_bzero to some pad paths; this issue generalises the pattern to the central deallocation helper).


Metrics

 
NVD enrichment efforts reference publicly available information to associate vector strings. CVSS information contributed by other sources is also displayed.
CVSS 4.0 Severity and Vector Strings:

NIST CVSS score
NIST: NVD
N/A
NVD assessment not yet provided.

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

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URL Source(s) Tag(s)
https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/releases/tag/0.9.2 GitHub, Inc.
https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/security/advisories/GHSA-rmp6-wfrq-wrrc GitHub, Inc.

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-ID CWE Name Source
CWE-14 Compiler Removal of Code to Clear Buffers GitHub, Inc.  
CWE-226 Sensitive Information in Resource Not Removed Before Reuse GitHub, Inc.  

Change History

2 change records found show changes

Quick Info

CVE Dictionary Entry:
CVE-2026-48984
NVD Published Date:
06/18/2026
NVD Last Modified:
06/18/2026
Source:
GitHub, Inc.