CVE-2024-47191

A vulnerability was found in a PAM module, the oath-toolkit. The module gained a feature that allowed placing the OTP state file, called the usersfile, in the home directory of the to-be-authenticated user. The PAM module performed unsafe file operations in the users' home directories. Since PAM stacks typically run as root, this flaw allows a malicious user to jeopardize an environment.

Fabian Vogt reported that the PAM module in oath-toolkit, a collection of components to build one-time password authentication systems, does not safely perform file operations in users's home directories when using the usersfile feature (allowing to place the OTP state in the home directory of the to-be-authenticated user). A local user can take advantage of this flaw for root privilege escalation.