The privilege-dropping implementation in the (1) pam_env and (2) pam_mail modules in Linux-PAM (aka pam) 1.1.2 does not check the return value of the setfsuid system call, which might allow local users to obtain sensitive information by leveraging an unintended uid, as demonstrated by a symlink attack on the .pam_environment file in a user's home directory. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2010-3435.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2010-3431 is rated Low Risk (14.7/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). Mandatory action: Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
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 | 2025-03-17 | 0.04% | 0.07% | +0.03% |
| 2 | 2023-03-07 | 1.55% | 0.04% | -1.50% |
| 3 | 2022-02-04 | — | 1.55% | — |
Full EPSS history (3 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.9 | 2.0 | LOW |
|
3.4 | 2.9 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
low | CVE-2010-3431 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (pam), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2010-3431 |
gentoo
|
high | CVE-2010-3431: 1 GLSA(s) (201206-31), 1 atom(s) (sys-libs/pam); latest impact high. | https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2010-3431 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2010-3431 |
suse
|
low | CVE-2010-3431 severity low: SUSE including 44 source package names (pam-1.1.8-11.57, pam-1.1.8-14.1, …), 71 product×package rows across 29 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1, … (29 product lines)): Fixed 71. | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2010-3431/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2010-3431 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (pam), 7 status rows across 7 suites (dapper, hardy, karmic, lucid, maverick, natty, upstream): released 5, ignored 2. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2010-3431 |