CVE-2019-19882

Exp

shadow 4.8, in certain circumstances affecting at least Gentoo, Arch Linux, and Void Linux, allows local users to obtain root access because setuid programs are misconfigured. Specifically, this affects shadow 4.8 when compiled using --with-libpam but without explicitly passing --disable-account-tools-setuid, and without a PAM configuration suitable for use with setuid account management tools. This combination leads to account management tools (groupadd, groupdel, groupmod, useradd, userdel, usermod) that can easily be used by unprivileged local users to escalate privileges to root in multiple ways. This issue became much more relevant in approximately December 2019 when an unrelated bug was fixed (i.e., the chmod calls to suidusbins were fixed in the upstream Makefile which is now included in the release version 4.8).

Published: 2019-12-18 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-19882 is rated High Exploit Risk (60/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.50%). 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2019-19882

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-19882

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 0.09% 0.50% +0.40%
2 2025-11-21 0.04% 0.09% +0.05%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.04% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-19882

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
6.9 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.4 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-19882

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-19882

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2019-19882 unimportant 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-2019-19882
gentoo high CVE-2019-19882: 1 GLSA(s) (202008-09), 1 atom(s) (sys-apps/shadow); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2019-19882
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-19882
ubuntu medium CVE-2019-19882 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (shadow), 6 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 5, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-19882

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-19882

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
shadow_project shadow 4.8 cpe:2.3:a:shadow_project:shadow:4.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-19882

cvelogic Threat Intelligence