CVE-2023-22809

In Sudo before 1.9.12p2, the sudoedit (aka -e) feature mishandles extra arguments passed in the user-provided environment variables (SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL, and EDITOR), allowing a local attacker to append arbitrary entries to the list of files to process. This can lead to privilege escalation. Affected versions are 1.8.0 through 1.9.12.p1. The problem exists because a user-specified editor may contain a "--" argument that defeats a protection mechanism, e.g., an EDITOR='vim -- /path/to/extra/file' value.

• CWE-269
• CWE-269

• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/171644/sudo-1.9.12p1-Privilege-Escalation.htmlThird Party Advisory, VDB Entry
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172509/Sudoedit-Extra-Arguments-Privilege-Escalation.htmlThird Party Advisory, VDB Entry
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174234/Cisco-ThousandEyes-Enterprise-Agent-Virtual-Appliance-Arbitrary-File-Modification.htmlThird Party Advisory, VDB Entry
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2023/Aug/21Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/01/19/1Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00012.htmlMailing List, Third Party Advisory
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2QDGFCGAV5QRJCE6IXRXIS4XJHS57DDH/Mailing List
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/G4YNBTTKTRT2ME3NTSXAPTOKYUE47XHZ/Mailing List
• https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202305-12Third Party Advisory
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230127-0015/Third Party Advisory
• https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213758Third Party Advisory
• https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5321Third Party Advisory
• https://www.sudo.ws/security/advisories/sudoedit_any/Exploit, Mitigation, Vendor Advisory
• https://www.synacktiv.com/sites/default/files/2023-01/sudo-CVE-2023-22809.pdfExploit, Mitigation, Technical Description, Third Party Advisory
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/171644/sudo-1.9.12p1-Privilege-Escalation.htmlThird Party Advisory, VDB Entry
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172509/Sudoedit-Extra-Arguments-Privilege-Escalation.htmlThird Party Advisory, VDB Entry
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174234/Cisco-ThousandEyes-Enterprise-Agent-Virtual-Appliance-Arbitrary-File-Modification.htmlThird Party Advisory, VDB Entry
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2023/Aug/21Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/01/19/1Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00012.htmlMailing List, Third Party Advisory
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2QDGFCGAV5QRJCE6IXRXIS4XJHS57DDH/Mailing List
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/G4YNBTTKTRT2ME3NTSXAPTOKYUE47XHZ/Mailing List
• https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202305-12Third Party Advisory
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230127-0015/Third Party Advisory
• https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213758Third Party Advisory
• https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5321Third Party Advisory
• https://www.sudo.ws/security/advisories/sudoedit_any/Exploit, Mitigation, Vendor Advisory
• https://www.synacktiv.com/sites/default/files/2023-01/sudo-CVE-2023-22809.pdfExploit, Mitigation, Technical Description, Third Party Advisory

Published

Jan 18, 2023

Last Modified

Jun 17, 2026

Status

Modified