Assessment
Why it matters
CISA lists this vulnerability as known to be exploited; exploitation is confirmed; EPSS is 99.3%; technical severity is CVSS 7.8.
Sudo before 1.9.5p2 contains an off-by-one error that can result in a heap-based buffer overflow, which allows privilege escalation to root via "sudoedit -s" and a command-line argument that ends with a single backslash character.
Who should care
- Teams operating Privilege Management For Mac, Privilege Management For Unix/linux, Debian Linux +21 more
- Vulnerability and exposure management teams
- Security operations teams monitoring exploitation activity
Response plan
What I would do
- Confirm whether Privilege Management For Mac, Privilege Management For Unix/linux, Debian Linux +21 more is present in the environment.
- Identify affected versions and establish whether vulnerable services are exposed or reachable.
- Oracle Security patch Cpujul2021
- Review relevant security telemetry for evidence of attempted or successful exploitation.
- Document the remediation decision and track it to verified completion.
Treatment intelligence
Remediation intelligence
Vendor sources are listed before government and third-party guidance. Confirm product applicability and change prerequisites before deployment.
Verification noteAutomated link verification has not completed for this guidance yet.
Patch
- Oracle Security patch Cpujul2021Oracle · Vendor sourceVerification pending ↗
- Oracle Security patch Cpuapr2022Oracle · Vendor sourceVerification pending ↗
- Oracle Security patch Cpuoct2021Oracle · Vendor sourceVerification pending ↗
- Apple Security patch HT212177Apple · Vendor sourceVerification pending ↗
- Openwall Security patchOpenwallVerification pending ↗
Upgrade
- Lists Fedoraproject Security release notes CALA5FTXIQBRRYUA2ZQNJXB6OQMAXEIILists FedoraprojectVerification pending ↗
- Lists Fedoraproject Security release notes LHXK6ICO5AYLGFK2TAX5MZKUXTUKWOJYLists FedoraprojectVerification pending ↗
- Sudo Ws Security release notes StableSudo WsVerification pending ↗
Advisory
Technical details
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CWE
- CWE-122
- Affected versions
- Beyondtrust Privilege Management For Mac (End Excluding 21.1.1); Beyondtrust Privilege Management For Unix/linux (End Excluding 10.3.2-10); Debian Debian Linux (Version 9.0 | Version 10.0); Fedoraproject Fedora (Version 32 | Version 33); Mcafee Web Gateway (Version 8.2.17 | Version 9.2.8 | Version 10.0.4); Netapp Active Iq Unified Manager (Version -); Netapp Cloud Backup (Version -); Netapp Hci Management Node (Version -)
- Fixed versions
- Beyondtrust Privilege Management For Mac (Fixed from 21.1.1); Beyondtrust Privilege Management For Unix/linux (Fixed from 10.3.2-10); Sudo Project Sudo (Fixed from 1.8.32, 1.9.5)
- Published
- 26 January 2021
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
Signal timeline
- CVE published
- Added to CISA KEV
- Latest EPSS score: 99.3%
- Signal calculated at 83
External references
- Debian Third-party advisory Msg00022
- CERT/CC Government advisory 794544
- CISA Government advisory CVE-2021-3156
- Exploit information from packetstormsecurity.com
- Exploit information from packetstormsecurity.com
- Exploit information from packetstormsecurity.com
- Exploit information from packetstormsecurity.com
- Exploit information from packetstormsecurity.com
- Seclists Third-party advisory
- Exploit information from seclists.org
- Exploit information from seclists.org
- Exploit information from www.openwall.com