Vulnerability · Published May 27, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-44712pam_usb: Shell injection via device UUID and username in pamusb-conf and pamusb-agent

High 8.2

In plain English

A high-severity OS command injection in pam_usb from mcdope. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 5% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)8.2High

Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 95.4% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. Prior to 0.8.7, a crafted UUID such as $(id>/tmp/rce) in the config causes root RCE when pamusb-conf --reset-pads is run. A USB device with a crafted filesystem UUID (some controllers allow this) can inject the payload at --add-device time. Also, userName from the XML config is passed to os.system() in pamusb-agent, which invokes a shell. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.8.7.

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
mcdope	pam_usb	< 0.8.7

Weakness: CWE-78, CWE-88 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/security/advisories/GHSA-jgv5-w6rm-7wxg x_refsource_CONFIRM