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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2023-40303

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2023-08-14
  • WeaknessCWE-252

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

GNU inetutils before 2.5 may allow privilege escalation because of unchecked return values of set*id() family functions in ftpd, rcp, rlogin, rsh, rshd, and uucpd. This is, for example, relevant if the setuid system call fails when a process is trying to drop privileges before letting an ordinary user control the activities of the process.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2023-08-1405:15CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD
Gnu inetutils
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.4≤ 2.4no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • inetutilsUbuntu:Pro:18.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:1.9.4-3ubuntu0.1+esm2
  • inetutilsUbuntu:Pro:16.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:1.9.4-1ubuntu0.1~esm3
  • inetutilsUbuntu:Pro:14.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:1.9.2-1ubuntu0.1~esm2
  • inetutilsUbuntu:24.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:2.4-3ubuntu1
  • inetutilsUbuntu:22.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:2.2-2ubuntu0.1
  • inetutilsUbuntu:20.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:1.9.4-11ubuntu0.2
  • inetutilsDebian:14all versions · fixed in 2:2.4-3
  • inetutilsDebian:13all versions · fixed in 2:2.4-3

2 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Full record on NVD

Fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2023-08-14
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-w2mw-45j6-m2cq

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-40303?

GNU inetutils before 2.5 may allow privilege escalation because of unchecked return values of set*id() family functions in ftpd, rcp, rlogin, rsh, rshd, and uucpd. This is, for example, relevant if the setuid system call fails when a process is trying to drop privileges before letting an ordinary user control the activities of the process.

Is CVE-2023-40303 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2023-40303 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 0.4% on 2026-11-08, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-40303?

CVE-2023-40303 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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