{"id":"CVE-2019-19882","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2019-19882","generatedAt":"2026-10-27T23:42:51.251Z","title":"shadow 4.8, in certain circumstances affecting at least Gentoo, Arch Linux, and Void Linux, allows local users to obtain root access because setuid programs are misconfigured.","description":"shadow 4.8, in certain circumstances affecting at least Gentoo, Arch Linux, and Void Linux, allows local users to obtain root access because setuid programs are misconfigured. Specifically, this affects shadow 4.8 when compiled using --with-libpam but without explicitly passing --disable-account-tools-setuid, and without a PAM configuration suitable for use with setuid account management tools. This combination leads to account management tools (groupadd, groupdel, groupmod, useradd, userdel, usermod) that can easily be used by unprivileged local users to escalate privileges to root in multiple ways. This issue became much more relevant in approximately December 2019 when an unrelated bug was fixed (i.e., the chmod calls to suidusbins were fixed in the upstream Makefile which is now included in the release version 4.8).","published":"2019-12-18T16:15:27.000Z","lastModified":"2026-06-17T02:27:23.000Z","status":"Modified","sourceIdentifier":"cve@mitre.org","cvss":{"version":"3.1","score":7.8,"severity":"HIGH","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"},"cwe":["CWE-732"],"affected":["shadow project/shadow"],"epss":{"score":0.00515,"percentile":0.43574,"date":"2026-10-26","history":[]},"kev":{"listed":false},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"high","text":"High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.52%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit."},"changes":[],"references":[{"url":"https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/64836","tags":["Exploit","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://bugs.gentoo.org/702252","tags":["Exploit","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow/commit/edf7547ad5aa650be868cf2dac58944773c12d75","tags":["Patch","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow/pull/199","tags":["Patch","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/pull/17580","tags":["Patch","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202008-09","source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/64836","tags":["Exploit","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://bugs.gentoo.org/702252","tags":["Exploit","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow/commit/edf7547ad5aa650be868cf2dac58944773c12d75","tags":["Patch","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow/pull/199","tags":["Patch","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/pull/17580","tags":["Patch","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202008-09","source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-19882","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}