CVE-2023-22809

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: January 18, 2023 at 12:00 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 05:36 AM UTC
4 products affected across 4 vendorsmacOSDebian LinuxFedora

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 55%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In Sudo before 1.9.12p2, the sudoedit (aka -e) feature mishandles extra arguments passed in the user-provided environment variables (SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL, and EDITOR), allowing a local attacker to append arbitrary entries to the list of files to process. This can lead to privilege escalation. Affected versions are 1.8.0 through 1.9.12.p1. The problem exists because a user-specified editor may contain a "--" argument that defeats a protection mechanism, e.g., an EDITOR='vim -- /path/to/extra/file' value.

Affected

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

v < 13.4
Affected range stops below 13.4, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
1.8.0 ≤ v < 1.9.121.9.121.9.12 p1
Affected range stops below 1.9.12, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.8HIGHCISA-ADP
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-269

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