CVE-2017-12424

In shadow before 4.5, the newusers tool could be made to manipulate internal data structures in ways unintended by the authors. Malformed input may lead to crashes (with a buffer overflow or other memory corruption) or other unspecified behaviors. This crosses a privilege boundary in, for example, certain web-hosting environments in which a Control Panel allows an unprivileged user account to create subaccounts.

Published: 2017-08-04 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-12424 is rated High Risk (70.2/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.66%). EPSS rose +1.72% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-12424

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 2026-06-15 0.94% 2.66% +1.72%
2 2026-06-07 0.57% 0.94% +0.37%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.57% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-12424

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]
7.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-12424

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-12424

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2017-12424: 1 source package rows (shadow); 7 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 7, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2017-12424
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-12424 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (shadow), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-12424
gentoo normal CVE-2017-12424: 1 GLSA(s) (201710-16), 1 atom(s) (sys-apps/shadow); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2017-12424
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-12424
suse medium CVE-2017-12424 severity moderate: SUSE including 11 source package names (0.9.1:shadow-4.2.1-27.3.3, 1.0.0:shadow-4.2.1-27.3.3, …), 28 product×package rows across 28 product lines (Container caasp/v4/default-http-backend, Container caasp/v4/dnsmasq-nanny, … (28 product lines)): Fixed 28. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-12424/
ubuntu low CVE-2017-12424 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (shadow), 14 status rows across 14 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial, zesty): not-affected 9, released 3, ignored 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-12424

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-12424

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
shadow_project shadow < 4.5 cpe:2.3:a:shadow_project:shadow:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-12424

cvelogic Threat Intelligence