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.

A Local Privilege Escalation (LPE) vulnerability has been discovered in pam-config within Linux Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM). This flaw allows an unprivileged local attacker (for example, a user logged in via SSH) to obtain the elevated privileges normally reserved for a physically present, "allow_active" user. The highest risk is that the attacker can then perform all allow_active yes Polkit actions, which are typically restricted to console users, potentially gaining unauthorized control over system configurations, services, or other sensitive operations.

A flaw was found in linux-pam. The module pam_namespace may use access user-controlled paths without proper protection, allowing local users to elevate their privileges to root via multiple symlink attacks and race conditions.

A vulnerability was found in pam_access due to the improper handling of tokens in access.conf, interpreted as hostnames. This flaw allows attackers to bypass access restrictions by spoofing hostnames, undermining configurations designed to limit access to specific TTYs or services. The flaw poses a risk in environments relying on these configurations for local access control.

A vulnerability was found in PAM. The secret information is stored in memory, where the attacker can trigger the victim program to execute by sending characters to its standard input (stdin). As this occurs, the attacker can train the branch predictor to execute an ROP chain speculatively. This flaw could result in leaked passwords, such as those found in /etc/shadow while performing authentications.