CVE-2023-4001 | Grub2: bypass the grub password protection feature

An authentication bypass flaw was found in GRUB due to the way that GRUB uses the UUID of a device to search for the configuration file that contains the password hash for the GRUB password protection feature. An attacker capable of attaching an external drive such as a USB stick containing a file system with a duplicate UUID (the same as in the "/boot/" file system) can bypass the GRUB password protection feature on UEFI systems, which enumerate removable drives before non-removable ones. This issue was introduced in a downstream patch in Red Hat's version of grub2 and does not affect the upstream package.

Published: 2024-01-15 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-4001 is rated Low Risk (30.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.04%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2023-4001

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 2025-11-21 0.82% 0.04% -0.79%
2 2025-11-18 0.03% 0.82% +0.79%
3 2025-04-15 — 0.03% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-4001

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.8 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:P)
Hands-on access—USB, keyboard, opening the case—not something you do purely over the wire.
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.
 0.9 5.9 [email protected]
6.8 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:P)
Hands-on access—USB, keyboard, opening the case—not something you do purely over the wire.
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.
 0.9 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-4001

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-4001

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2023-4001 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (grub2), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-4001
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4001
suse medium CVE-2023-4001 severity moderate: SUSE including 10 source package names (grub2-common-2.06-70.el9_3.2, grub2-efi-x64-2.06-70.el9_3.2, …), 10 product×package rows across 1 product lines (SUSE Liberty Linux 9): Fixed 10. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4001/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-4001 medium priority: Ubuntu including 3 source packages (grub2, grub2-signed, grub2-unsigned), 30 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 28, ignored 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-4001

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-4001

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnu grub2 — cpe:2.3:a:gnu:grub2:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 39 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:39:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-4001

cvelogic Threat Intelligence