CVE-2026-48981CWE-611

pam_usb: xmlReadFile flags=0 permits XXE network entity fetching in conf.c

Medium · published June 18, 2026

CVSS v3.1
6.7
EPSS
0%
Percentile
4.2
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. In versions prior to 0.9.2, pam_usb calls xmlReadFile() with flags=0 when loading the configuration file, allowing libxml2 to process external entity references (XXE), potentially making outbound network connections or local file reads at XML parse time from the context of the authenticating process. The vulnerability requires the configuration file to contain crafted XML entity references. Since pam_usb.conf is root-owned, direct exploitation requires prior write access to the config, but the defence-in-depth impact is significant given that pam_usb.so runs in setuid contexts (sudo, su). This issue has been fixed in version 0.9.2.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
6.7 · MEDIUM
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:L
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00154 · 4.2th percentile
Weakness
CWE-611 · Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference
Published
2026-06-18T18:55Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 18 JUN 18:55Z
    pam_usb: xmlReadFile flags=0 permits XXE network entity fetching in conf.c
    cvelistv5