CVE-2019-15900: An issue was discovered in slicer69 doas before 6.2 on certain platforms other than OpenBSD. On platforms without strtonum(3), sscanf was used without...

Description

An issue was discovered in slicer69 doas before 6.2 on certain platforms other than OpenBSD. On platforms without strtonum(3), sscanf was used without checking for error cases. Instead, the uninitialized variable errstr was checked and in some cases returned success even if sscanf failed. The result was that, instead of reporting that the supplied username or group name did not exist, it would execute the command as root.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1

9.8/10

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Probability

2.11%

79.4th percentile

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. Learn more

Weakness Enumeration

Affected Software

Vendor	Product	Versions
Doas Project	Doas	< 6.2

References

Timeline

Published: Oct 18, 2019
Last Modified: Jun 17, 2026
Status: Modified

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2019-15900?

An issue was discovered in slicer69 doas before 6.2 on certain platforms other than OpenBSD. On platforms without strtonum(3), sscanf was used without checking for error cases. Instead, the uninitialized variable errstr was checked and in some cases returned success even if sscanf failed. The result was that, instead of reporting that the supplied username or group name did not exist, it would execute the command as root.

How severe is CVE-2019-15900?

CVE-2019-15900 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10 (CRITICAL severity). The EPSS model estimates a 2.11% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

How do I fix CVE-2019-15900?

Check the vendor references and advisories linked above for patched versions and mitigation guidance. You can also run a Strix scan to test if your systems are affected.