Description
In Sudo through 1.8.29, an attacker with access to a Runas ALL sudoer account can impersonate a nonexistent user by invoking sudo with a numeric uid that is not associated with any user. NOTE: The software maintainer believes that this is not a vulnerability because running a command via sudo as a user not present in the local password database is an intentional feature. Because this behavior surprised some users, sudo 1.8.30 introduced an option to enable/disable this behavior with the default being disabled. However, this does not change the fact that sudo was behaving as intended, and as documented, in earlier versions
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | sudo | 1.8.31-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | sudo | 1.8.31-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | sudo | 1.8.31-1 | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | sudo | 1.8.31-1ubuntu1 | — |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 8 | sudo | 1.8.29-5.el8 | RHSA-2020:1804 |
Oracle Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 8 | sudo | 1.8.29-5.el8 | ELSA-2020-1804 |
Advisories 3
- WID-SEC-2023-1600 sudo: Mehrere Schwachstellen ermöglichen Privilegieneskalation BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Jun 29, 2026
- RHSA-2020:1804 Red Hat Security Advisory: sudo security, bug fix, and enhancement update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Nov 22, 2025
- ELSA-2020-1804 Moderate: sudo security, bug fix, and enhancement update (Oracle Linux 8) Oracle Linux Security Advisories (ELSA) · May 5, 2020
References
- https://www.sudo.ws/stable.html
- https://www.sudo.ws/devel.html#1.8.30b2
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200103-0004/
- https://quickview.cloudapps.cisco.com/quickview/bug/CSCvs58812
- https://quickview.cloudapps.cisco.com/quickview/bug/CSCvs58979
- https://www.bsi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Warnmeldungen/DE/CB/2019/12/warnmeldung_cb-k20-0001.html
- https://support2.windriver.com/index.php?page=defects&on=view&id=LIN1018-5506
- https://quickview.cloudapps.cisco.com/quickview/bug/CSCvs58103
- https://support2.windriver.com/index.php?page=cve&on=view&id=CVE-2019-19232
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2019-19232
- https://quickview.cloudapps.cisco.com/quickview/bug/CSCvs76870
- FEDORA-2020-8b563bc5f4 vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2020-7c1b270959 vendor-advisory
- https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211100
- 20200324 APPLE-SA-2020-03-24-2 macOS Catalina 10.15.4, Security Update 2020-002 Mojave, Security Update 2020-002 High Sierra mailing-list
- https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211100
- https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/133936
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/bulletinapr2020.html