CVE-2017-12424

CRITICAL
9.8
CVSS Score
Published: August 4, 2017 at 09:00 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 01:03 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsDebian LinuxShadow

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Severity
CRITICAL9.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 3%

Description

In shadow before 4.5, the newusers tool could be made to manipulate internal data structures in ways unintended by the authors. Malformed input may lead to crashes (with a buffer overflow or other memory corruption) or other unspecified behaviors. This crosses a privilege boundary in, for example, certain web-hosting environments in which a Control Panel allows an unprivileged user account to create subaccounts.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 4.5
Affected range stops below 4.5, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (5)

x_refsource_CONFIRMIssue TrackingThird Party Advisory
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=756630
x_refsource_CONFIRMIssue TrackingThird Party Advisory
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/shadow/+bug/1266675
Mailing Listx_refsource_MLISTThird Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/03/msg00020.html
Vendor Advisoryx_refsource_GENTOOThird Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201710-16

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-119

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