Sudo before 1.6.8 p12, when the Perl taint flag is off, does not clear the (1) PERLLIB, (2) PERL5LIB, and (3) PERL5OPT environment variables, which allows limited local users to cause a Perl script to include and execute arbitrary library files that have the same name as library files that are included by the script.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2005-4158 is rated Exploit Available (59.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.83%). Core evidence: 4 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
| EDB-ID | Source | Kind | Published | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27057 | exploit_db | edb | 2006-01-09 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
| 27056 | exploit_db | edb | 2006-01-09 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
| 26498 | exploit_db | edb | 2005-11-11 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
| — | nvd_ref | exploit_tag | Exploit-DB ↗ |
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2025-12-27 | 0.51% | 0.83% | +0.32% |
| 2 | 2025-04-23 | 0.69% | 0.51% | -0.18% |
| 3 | 2025-04-16 | — | 0.69% | — |
Full EPSS history (9 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.6 | 2.0 | MEDIUM |
|
3.9 | 6.4 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
medium | CVE-2005-4158 medium priority: Debian including 1 source packages (sudo), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2005-4158 |
redhat
|
low | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2005-4158 |
suse
|
medium | CVE-2005-4158 severity moderate: SUSE including 12 source package names (sudo-1.9.15p5-1.3, sudo-1.9.15p5-slfo.1.1_1.2, …), 12 product×package rows across 4 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0, SUSE Linux Micro 6.0, SUSE Linux Micro 6.1, openSUSE Tumbleweed): Fixed 12. | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2005-4158/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2005-4158 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (sudo), 4 status rows across 4 suites (dapper, edgy, feisty, upstream): released 3, needs-triage 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2005-4158 |
We do not consider this to be a security issue. http:bugzilla.redhat.combugzillashow_bug.cgi?id=139478#c1
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.5.6 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.5.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.5.7 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.5.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.5.8 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.5.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.5.9 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.5.9:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.1 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.2 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.3 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.3_p1 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.3_p1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.3_p2 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.3_p2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.3_p3 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.3_p3:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.3_p4 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.3_p4:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.3_p5 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.3_p5:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.3_p6 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.3_p6:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.3_p7 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.3_p7:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.4 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.4_p1 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.4_p1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.4_p2 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.4_p2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.5 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.5_p1 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.5_p1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.5_p2 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.5_p2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.6 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.7 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.7_p5 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.7_p5:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.8 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.8_p1 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.8_p1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.8_p5 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.8_p5:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.8_p7 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.8_p7:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.8_p8 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.8_p8:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| todd_miller | sudo | 1.6.8_p9 | cpe:2.3:a:todd_miller:sudo:1.6.8_p9:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |