sudo-rs Session File Relative Path Traversal vulnerability

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

3.3 · CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L

EPSS

• CVE-2023-42456: 0.63% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 50.02 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Background Sudo-rs allows users to not have to enter authentication at every sudo attempt, but instead only requiring authentication every once in a while in every terminal or process group. Only once a configurable timeout has passed will the user have to re-authenticate themselves. Supporting this functionality is a set of session files (timestamps) for each user, stored in /var/run/sudo-rs/ts. These files are named according to the username from which the sudo attempt is made (the origin user). Impact An issue was discovered where usernames containing the . and / characters could result in the corruption of specific files on the filesystem. On some operating systems usernames are not limited as to the characters they can contain, so a username appearing to be a relative path can be constructed. For example we could add a user to the system containing the username ../../../../bin/cp. When logged in as a user with that name, that user could run sudo -K to clear their session record…

Published by the source

21 Sep 2023, 17:07 UTC

Last modified by the source

10 Jun 2026, 13:42 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:42 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-2r3c-m6v7-9354

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2023-42456

Advisory: sudo-rs Session File Relative Path Traversal vulnerability
IDs: CVE-2023-42456, GHSA-2r3c-m6v7-9354
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2023-42456 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:42 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Low (CVSS 3.3)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: sudo-rs 0.2.1. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- crates.io sudo-rs: affected <= 0.2.0; fixed in 0.2.1

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- crates.io sudo-rs: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on sudo-rs.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-2r3c-m6v7-9354 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-2r3c-m6v7-9354 lists affected ranges: crates.io sudo-rs >=0 <=0.2.0)

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