CVE-2018-16588
shadow-utils: useradd-mkdirs.patch creates intermediate directories with 0777
Severity
LowRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.0
Review impact separately from score.
Published · September 6, 2018
Updated · November 22, 2025
Description
Privilege escalation can occur in the SUSE useradd.c code in useradd, as distributed in the SUSE shadow package through 4.2.1-27.9.1 for SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 (SLE-12) and through 4.5-5.39 for SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 (SLE-15). Non-existing intermediate directories are created with mode 0777 during user creation. Given that they are world-writable, local attackers might use this for privilege escalation and other unspecified attacks. NOTE: this would affect non-SUSE users who took useradd.c code from a 2014-04-02 upstream pull request; however, no non-SUSE distribution is known to be affected.
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.0 · 4.4CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
CWE-732 · Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource