CVE-2023-22809

Exp

In Sudo before 1.9.12p2, the sudoedit (aka -e) feature mishandles extra arguments passed in the user-provided environment variables (SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL, and EDITOR), allowing a local attacker to append arbitrary entries to the list of files to process. This can lead to privilege escalation. Affected versions are 1.8.0 through 1.9.12.p1. The problem exists because a user-specified editor may contain a "--" argument that defeats a protection mechanism, e.g., an EDITOR='vim -- /path/to/extra/file' value.

Published: 2023-01-18 Last update: 2025-04-04 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-22809 is rated High Exploit Risk (83.7/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 44.37%, 98th percentile). 4 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +3.28% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2023-22809

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
51217 exploit_db edb 2023-04-03 Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-22809

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 2026-06-08 41.09% 44.37% +3.28%
2 2026-06-07 39.86% 41.09% +1.23%
3 2026-06-03 — 39.86% —

Full EPSS history (49 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-22809

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]
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 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-22809

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-22809

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-22809: 1 source package rows (sudo); 23 state rows across 8 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 7, open 16. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-22809
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-22809 not yet assigned 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-2023-22809
gentoo high CVE-2023-22809: 1 GLSA(s) (202305-12), 1 atom(s) (app-admin/sudo); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-22809
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-22809
suse high CVE-2023-22809 severity important: SUSE including 285 source package names (1.10.1.16.4.5.328:sudo-1.9.5p2-150300.3.19.1, 11.1-2.2.341:sudo-1.9.5p2-150300.3.19.1, …), 480 product×package rows across 193 product lines (Container ses/7.1/cephcsi/cephcsi, Container ses/7.1/rook/ceph, … (193 product lines)): Fixed 350, Known Affected 129, Known Not Affected 1. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-22809/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-22809 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (sudo), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-22809

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-22809

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
sudo_project sudo >= 1.8.0, < 1.9.12 cpe:2.3:a:sudo_project:sudo:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
sudo_project sudo 1.9.12 cpe:2.3:a:sudo_project:sudo:1.9.12:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
sudo_project sudo 1.9.12 cpe:2.3:a:sudo_project:sudo:1.9.12:p1:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 36 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:36:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple macos < 13.4 cpe:2.3:o:apple:macos:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-22809

URL Tags
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/171644/sudo-1.9.12p1-Privilege-Escalation.html Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172509/Sudoedit-Extra-Arguments-Privilege-Escalation.html Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174234/Cisco-ThousandEyes-Enterprise-Agent-Virtual-Appliance-Arbitrary-File-Modification.html Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2023/Aug/21 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/01/19/1 Exploit Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00012.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2QDGFCGAV5QRJCE6IXRXIS4XJHS57DDH/ Mailing List
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/G4YNBTTKTRT2ME3NTSXAPTOKYUE47XHZ/ Mailing List
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202305-12 Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230127-0015/ Third Party Advisory
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213758 Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5321 Third Party Advisory
https://www.sudo.ws/security/advisories/sudoedit_any/ Exploit Mitigation Vendor Advisory
https://www.synacktiv.com/sites/default/files/2023-01/sudo-CVE-2023-22809.pdf Exploit Mitigation Technical Description Third Party Advisory
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