CVE-2026-44713 PUBLISHED

pam_usb: Command injection via $TMUX environment variable leads to RCE as root

Assigner: GitHub_M
Reserved: 07.05.2026 Published: 27.05.2026 Updated: 27.05.2026

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. Prior to 0.8.7, src/tmux.c reads the user's $TMUX environment variable, splits it on commas, and interpolates the socket-path component directly into a shell command passed to popen(). Because the value is placed inside double-quotes without sanitisation, any value containing " terminates the quoted string and injects arbitrary shell syntax. popen() runs as root inside the PAM stack. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.8.7.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS Score: 8.8

Product Status

Vendor mcdope
Product pam_usb
Versions
  • Version < 0.8.7 is affected

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-78: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection') CWE
  • CWE-116: Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output CWE