CVE 4.7 MEDIUM

pam_usb: Infinite loop DoS in process-tree walk when parent process exits during authentication_CVE-2026-48986

4.7 / 10
MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Description

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using removable media. In pam_usb 0.9.1 and earlier, usb_get_process_parent_id() can cause an infinite loop DoS because it does not initialize *ppid on failure. In pusb_local_login(), the same variable is reused as input and output in a process-tree while loop; if /proc/<pid>/stat cannot be read (for example, when an ancestor process exits during authentication), the PID is not updated and the loop does not terminate. This hangs the authenticating process (such as sudo, sshd, or login) until it is forcibly terminated. This issue has been fixed in version 0.9.2.

Basic Information

ID CVE-2026-48986
Source GitHub_M
Published Jun 18, 2026 at 17:20

Affected Product

Vendor mcdope
Product pam_usb
Version < 0.9.2
Affected Versions mcdope pam_usb < 0.9.2

CWE Classification

References

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