CVE-2025-8941 | Linux-pam: incomplete fix for cve-2025-6020

A flaw was found in linux-pam. The pam_namespace module may improperly handle user-controlled paths, allowing local users to exploit symlink attacks and race conditions to elevate their privileges to root. This CVE provides a "complete" fix for CVE-2025-6020.

Published: 2025-08-13 Last update: 2026-04-15 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-8941 is rated Low Risk (32.7/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: 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-2025-8941

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 2025-08-14 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-8941

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]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-8941

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-8941

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-8941 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (pam), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): undetermined 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-8941
redhat high https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-8941
suse high CVE-2025-8941 severity important: SUSE including 14 source package names (pam, pam-1.1.8-23.el7_9.2, …), 181 product×package rows across 42 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Liberty Linux 7 LTSS, … (42 product lines)): Known Not Affected 174, Fixed 7. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-8941/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-8941 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (pam), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, ignored 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-8941

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-8941

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2025-8941

URL Tags
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:14557
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15099
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15100
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15101
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15102
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15103
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15104
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15105
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15106
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15107
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15709
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15827
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:15828
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:16524
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:17181
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:18219
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:21885
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-8941
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2388220
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