CVE-2005-4890

Publication date 4 November 2019

Last updated 25 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Low

Why this priority?

Cvss 3 Severity Score

7.8 · High

Score breakdown

Description

There is a possible tty hijacking in shadow 4.x before 4.1.5 and sudo 1.x before 1.7.4 via "su - user -c program". The user session can be escaped to the parent session by using the TIOCSTI ioctl to push characters into the input buffer to be read by the next process.

Read the notes from the security team

Status

Package Ubuntu Release Status
sudo 21.04 hirsute
Not affected
20.10 groovy
Not affected
20.04 LTS focal
Not affected
19.10 eoan
Not affected
19.04 disco
Not affected
18.10 cosmic
Not affected
18.04 LTS bionic
Not affected
17.10 artful
Not affected
17.04 zesty
Not affected
16.10 yakkety
Not affected
16.04 LTS xenial
Not affected
15.10 wily
Not affected
15.04 vivid
Not affected
14.10 utopic
Not affected
14.04 LTS trusty
Not affected
13.10 saucy
Not affected
13.04 raring
Not affected
12.10 quantal
Not affected
12.04 LTS precise
Not affected
11.10 oneiric Ignored end of life
11.04 natty Ignored end of life
10.10 maverick Ignored end of life
10.04 LTS lucid Ignored end of life
8.04 LTS hardy Ignored end of life
shadow 21.04 hirsute
Not affected
20.10 groovy
Not affected
20.04 LTS focal
Not affected
19.10 eoan
Not affected
19.04 disco
Not affected
18.10 cosmic
Not affected
18.04 LTS bionic
Not affected
17.10 artful
Not affected
17.04 zesty
Not affected
16.10 yakkety
Not affected
16.04 LTS xenial
Not affected
15.10 wily
Not affected
15.04 vivid
Not affected
14.10 utopic
Not affected
14.04 LTS trusty
Not affected
13.10 saucy Ignored end of life
13.04 raring Ignored end of life
12.10 quantal Ignored end of life
12.04 LTS precise Ignored end of life
11.10 oneiric Ignored end of life
11.04 natty Ignored end of life
10.10 maverick Ignored end of life
10.04 LTS lucid Ignored end of life
8.04 LTS hardy Ignored end of life

Notes

mdeslaur

sudo is also apprently vulnerable to this, so the use_pty option was added. We need to verify versions, and make sure it is actually getting honored (apparently the option wasn't working: http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/06/22/4)

jdstrand

sudo in 12.04 and higher has the fix for use_pty. A small patch (http://www.sudo.ws/repos/sudo/rev/8d95a163dfc1) can be used to enable it on Ubuntu 11.04 and 11.10.

mdeslaur

Please note that use_pty is not enabled by default in sudo, it must be specifically enabled.

seth-arnold

su interactive has the same problem, no fix known on 20130305

Patch details

For informational purposes only. We recommend not to cherry-pick updates. How can I get the fixes?

Package Patch details
sudo

Severity score breakdown

Parameter Value
Base score 7.8 · High
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required Low
User interaction None
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality High
Integrity impact High
Availability impact High
Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

Other references