VulnerabilityDeferred

CVE-2026-48986

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using removable media.

MEDIUM 4.7EPSS 0.14%

Does this matter?

Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.14%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.

Description

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using removable media. In pam_usb 0.9.1 and earlier, usb_get_process_parent_id() can cause an infinite loop DoS because it does not initialize *ppid on failure. In pusb_local_login(), the same variable is reused as input and output in a process-tree while loop; if /proc/<pid>/stat cannot be read (for example, when an ancestor process exits during authentication), the PID is not updated and the loop does not terminate. This hangs the authenticating process (such as sudo, sshd, or login) until it is forcibly terminated. This issue has been fixed in version 0.9.2.

CVSS 3.1: 4.7 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS: 0.14% probability · 4th percentile
CISA KEV: Not listed
Weakness: CWE-835
Source: security-advisories@github.com

References

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