CVE-2005-4890

HIGHNVD 7.87.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2022-04-21. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
7.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.6%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

There is a possible tty hijacking in shadow 4.x before 4.1.5 and sudo 1.x before 1.7.4 via "su - user -c program". The user session can be escaped to the parent session by using the TIOCSTI ioctl to push characters into the input buffer to be read by the next process.

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
7.8HIGHmedium confidence
EG Risk
40
EG Risk 40/100CISA SSVC

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity78% × 45%
Exploitation1% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
CISA SSVC: Track at low or medium mission impact; Track or Attend at high (mission-essential systems).
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.
EPSS PROB
0.6%
EPSS %ILE
48th
KEV
Not listed

CISA SSVCTrack at low or medium mission impact; Track or Attend at high (mission-essential systems).

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.

Exploitation none (no KEV listing, exploit record or EPSS ≥ 50%) · Automatable unknown (not published for this CVE) · Technical impact partial (CVSS below 9.0). Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it: high means the affected system is essential to your organisation's mission, or its compromise could cause irreversible harm to people. CISA's decision table

Published

November 4, 2019

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (10)

Auto-updated Jul 24, 2026
Patch available. Sources: redhat.
redhatMentions a patch (unverified)

710208 – (CVE-2005-4890) CVE-2005-4890 coreutils: tty hijacking possible in "su" via TIOCSTI ioctl

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2005-4890
redhatMentions a patch (unverified)

cve-details

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2005-4890
generic

oss-security - CVE Request: pkexec tty hijacking via TIOCSTI ioctl

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/02/25/6
generic

oss-security - Re: Multiple disputed issues in util-vserver

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2014/12/15/5
generic

oss-security - AW: Multiple disputed issues in util-vserver

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2014/10/21/1
generic

oss-security - Re: Multiple disputed issues in util-vserver

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2014/10/20/9
generic

oss-security - Re: CVE Request: adequate: privilege escalation via tty hijacking

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2013/11/29/5
generic

oss-security - CVE Request: adequate: privilege escalation via tty hijacking

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2013/11/28/10
generic

oss-security - tty-hijacking & CVE-2005-4890 - redux

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2013/05/20/3
generic

oss-security - Re: Re: TTY handling when executing code in different lower-privileged context (su, virt containers)

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/11/06/8

Affected Packages

(8 across 4 ecosystems)
Debian:11(2)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
shadow—
  • every version up to 1:4.1.5-1: fixed in 1:4.1.5-1
—
sudo—
  • every version up to 1.7.4p4: fixed in 1.7.4p4
—
Debian:12(2)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
shadow—
  • every version up to 1:4.1.5-1: fixed in 1:4.1.5-1
—
sudo—
  • every version up to 1.7.4p4: fixed in 1.7.4p4
—
Debian:13(2)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
shadow—
  • every version up to 1:4.1.5-1: fixed in 1:4.1.5-1
—
sudo—
  • every version up to 1.7.4p4: fixed in 1.7.4p4
—
Debian:14(2)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
shadow—
  • every version up to 1:4.1.5-1: fixed in 1:4.1.5-1
—
sudo—
  • every version up to 1.7.4p4: fixed in 1.7.4p4
—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 3× in last 7d / 10× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-10-05 17:37 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-10-04 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-10-03 14:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-09-29 02:52 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-09-19 16:30 UTCOSV refresh
  6. 2026-09-18 19:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-09-17 19:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-09-13 16:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-09-12 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-09-10 09:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-09-05 15:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-09-04 04:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-08-31 20:04 UTCOSV refresh
  14. 2026-08-30 01:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-08-14 22:54 UTCOSV refresh
  16. 2026-08-08 16:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-08-05 19:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-08-03 10:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-30 11:14 UTCOSV refresh
  20. 2026-07-24 14:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-23 00:49 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-07-23 00:29 UTCEG score recompute
  23. 2026-07-22 23:53 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-07-22 21:33 UTCEG score recompute
  25. 2026-07-20 17:02 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 72 more
  1. 2026-07-18 09:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-16 16:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-15 16:53 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-15 01:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-13 22:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-13 06:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-13 06:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-12 20:37 UTCOSV refresh
  9. 2026-07-11 08:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-09 19:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-08 15:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-06 02:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-06 02:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-04 06:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-07-02 14:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-07-01 15:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-29 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-29 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-27 03:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-25 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-24 14:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-24 14:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-24 06:20 UTCOSV refresh
  24. 2026-06-23 21:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-23 21:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-06-22 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-06-21 01:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-06-19 19:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-06-19 19:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-06-17 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-06-17 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-06-15 17:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-14 23:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-13 22:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-12 23:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-06-11 13:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-06-10 22:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-06-10 13:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-06-07 15:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-06-07 09:59 UTCOSV refresh
  45. 2026-06-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-06-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-06-05 22:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-06-05 06:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-06-05 06:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-06-04 13:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-06-04 13:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-06-02 20:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-06-02 20:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  56. 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  57. 2026-05-31 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  58. 2026-05-31 00:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  59. 2026-05-31 00:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  60. 2026-05-31 00:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  61. 2026-05-29 13:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  62. 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  63. 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  64. 2026-05-27 13:37 UTCEPSS rescore
  65. 2026-05-27 13:37 UTCEPSS rescore
  66. 2026-05-26 13:41 UTCEPSS rescore
  67. 2026-05-26 13:41 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-05-26 07:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  69. 2026-05-26 07:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  70. 2026-05-24 16:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-05-23 03:19 UTCEG score recompute
  72. 2026-05-23 03:19 UTCGHSA enrichment

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2005-4890?
CVE-2005-4890 is a high vulnerability published on November 4, 2019. There is a possible tty hijacking in shadow 4.x before 4.1.5 and sudo 1.x before 1.7.4 via "su - user -c program". The user session can be escaped to the parent session by using the TIOCSTI ioctl to push characters into the input buffer to be read by the next process.
When was CVE-2005-4890 disclosed?
CVE-2005-4890 was first published on November 4, 2019, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2005-4890 actively exploited?
CVE-2005-4890 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (48th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2005-4890?
CVE-2005-4890 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2005-4890?
A fix for CVE-2005-4890 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory.

Dependency Blast Radius

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