1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-4154-1

USN-4154-1: Sudo vulnerability

Publication date

14 October 2019

Overview

Sudo could be made to run commands as root if it called with a specially crafted user ID.

Releases

Packages

  • sudo - Provide limited super user privileges to specific users

Details

Joe Vennix discovered that Sudo incorrectly handled
certain user IDs. An attacker could potentially exploit this
to execute arbitrary commands as the root user.

Joe Vennix discovered that Sudo incorrectly handled
certain user IDs. An attacker could potentially exploit this
to execute arbitrary commands as the root user.

Update instructions

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu Release Package Version
19.04 disco sudo –  1.8.27-1ubuntu1.1
sudo-ldap –  1.8.27-1ubuntu1.1
18.04 bionic sudo –  1.8.21p2-3ubuntu1.1
sudo-ldap –  1.8.21p2-3ubuntu1.1
16.04 xenial sudo –  1.8.16-0ubuntu1.8
sudo-ldap –  1.8.16-0ubuntu1.8
14.04 trusty sudo –  1.8.9p5-1ubuntu1.5+esm2  
sudo-ldap –  1.8.9p5-1ubuntu1.5+esm2  
12.04 precise sudo –  1.8.3p1-1ubuntu3.8
sudo-ldap –  1.8.3p1-1ubuntu3.8

Reduce your security exposure

Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Get Ubuntu Pro

References

Have additional questions?

Talk to a member of the team ›