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Vulnerability Intelligence Report

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.

No Active Exploit Signals
CVSS Base Score
7.8
HIGH
Exploitability:1.9
Impact Score:5.9
EPSS Probability:55.37%
Executive Threat Verdict
Evaluating...
Evaluating Threat Landscape...
Assessing known weaponization, exploitation telemetry, and federal advisories.
Attack Surface
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Authentication
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Weaponization
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SSVC Action
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Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-269 ↗CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management

Affected Products & Versions

Vendor Product Affected Versions
sudo_project sudo 1.9.12
debian debian_linux 10.0, 11.0
fedoraproject fedora 36, 37
apple macos all

References & Technical Advisories

No reference links found.

Threat Intelligence Signals

EPSS Score
55.367%

Identity & Timeline

StatusPUBLISHED
Assigning AuthorityMITRE Corporation · N/A · USA
Reserved2023-01-06T00:00:00
Published2023-01-18T00:00:00
Last Updated2025-04-04T15:45:24

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