Headline
GHSA-g8qw-mgjx-rwjr: New authd users logging in via SSH are members of the root group
Impact
When a user who hasn’t logged in to the system before (i.e. doesn’t exist in the authd user database) logs in via SSH, the user is considered a member of the root group in the context of the SSH session. That leads to a local privilege escalation if the user should not have root privileges.
Patches
Fixed by https://github.com/ubuntu/authd/commit/619ce8e55953b970f1765ddaad565081538151ab
Workarounds
Configure the SSH server to not allow authenticating via authd, for example by setting UsePAM no or KbdInteractiveAuthentication no in the sshd_config (see https://documentation.ubuntu.com/authd/stable/howto/login-ssh/#ssh-configuration).
Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.