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CVE-2026-54411 Detail

Description

Linux-PAM through 1.7.2 contains an observable timing discrepancy (CWE-208) in the pam_userdb module's plaintext-password comparison path in modules/pam_userdb/pam_userdb.c that allows a local or network-adjacent attacker able to repeatedly drive authentication through a calling service to recover the plaintext password of a target account by measuring response-timing differences. The comparison uses strncmp() (or strncasecmp() when PAM_ICASE_ARG is set) preceded by a length-equality check, so the time to reject a candidate depends on the index of the first differing byte and on whether the candidate's length matches the stored password, leaking the password length and individual prefix bytes. The vulnerable path is reached when the administrator configures pam_userdb with crypt=none, with an unrecognized crypt method, or without a crypt= argument, causing the module to store and compare credentials in plaintext.


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.

Nist CVSS score does not match with CNA score
CNA:  TuranSec
CVSS-BT 6.9 MEDIUM
Vector:  CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/AU:N/V:D

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URL Source(s) Tag(s)
TuranSec
TuranSec
TuranSec
TuranSec

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-ID CWE Name Source
CWE-208 Observable Timing Discrepancy TuranSec  

Change History

1 change records found show changes

Quick Info

CVE Dictionary Entry:
CVE-2026-54411
NVD Published Date:
06/14/2026
NVD Last Modified:
06/14/2026
Source:
TuranSec