VulnerabilityDeferred

CVE-2026-48065

Because xmalloc() only calls abort() on NULL return, a small-but-non-NULL allocation is accepted, and subsequent array writes overflow the heap.

MEDIUM 6.7EPSS 0.15%

Does this matter?

Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.15%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.

Description

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. Prior to 0.9.1, src/conf.c allocates heap memory proportional to n_devices, a count derived from libxml2 XPath evaluation of the config file, without first enforcing an upper bound. On 32-bit targets (armv7l, i686 -- both listed in the project Makefile), the multiplication n_devices * sizeof(t_pusb_device) wraps around size_t, causing xmalloc() to receive a very small size. Because xmalloc() only calls abort() on NULL return, a small-but-non-NULL allocation is accepted, and subsequent array writes overflow the heap. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.9.1.

CVSS 3.1: 6.7 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS: 0.15% probability · 4th percentile
CISA KEV: Not listed
Weakness: CWE-122, CWE-190
Source: security-advisories@github.com

References

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.