CVE-2023-4001

Grub2: bypass the grub password protection feature

MEDIUM
6.8
CVSS Score
Published: January 15, 2024 at 11:10 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:36 AM UTC
3 products affected across 3 vendorsFedoraEnterprise LinuxGRUB2

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Severity
MEDIUM6.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.5%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

An authentication bypass flaw was found in GRUB due to the way that GRUB uses the UUID of a device to search for the configuration file that contains the password hash for the GRUB password protection feature. An attacker capable of attaching an external drive such as a USB stick containing a file system with a duplicate UUID (the same as in the "/boot/" file system) can bypass the GRUB password protection feature on UEFI systems, which enumerate removable drives before non-removable ones. This issue was introduced in a downstream patch in Red Hat's version of grub2 and does not affect the upstream package.

Affected

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

All versions
Vendor states this is fixed in 1:2.06-27.el9_0.16 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 1:2.06-61.el9_2.2 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 8 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

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

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

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

CVSS

6.8MEDIUMredhat
Attack Vector
PHYSICAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-290

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