CVE-2023-22809

HIGHNVD 7.88.4▲
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

Score elevated to 8.4 because EPSS predicts 55% probability of exploitation within the next 30 days (top 1.1% of all CVEs). NVD baseline CVSS 7.8 retained for reference. Confidence: see factors.

Triggered by: EPSS exploit prediction ≥85%
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
Weaponized
8.4EG
EchelonGraph verdictPatch this weekExploitation is likely or a public exploit exists.
  • High exploitation likelihood — EPSS 55%
  • Public exploit code is available (Metasploit, epss top5pct, epss high, public exploit)
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 55%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: Metasploit · epss top5pct · epss high · public exploitExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

In Sudo before 1.9.12p2, the sudoedit (aka -e) feature mishandles extra arguments passed in the user-provided environment variables (SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL, and EDITOR), allowing a local attacker to append arbitrary entries to the list of files to process. This can lead to privilege escalation. Affected versions are 1.8.0 through 1.9.12.p1. The problem exists because a user-specified editor may contain a "--" argument that defeats a protection mechanism, e.g., an EDITOR='vim -- /path/to/extra/file' value.

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
8.4(high)
EG Risk
64(Track)
EG Risk 64/100SSVC: Track

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
Severity84% × 45%
Exploitation65% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
55%
EPSS %ILE
99%
KEV
Not listed

Published

January 18, 2023

Last Modified

April 4, 2025

References (28)

Patch Availability(16)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntusudo (1.9.9-1ubuntu2.2) @ jammy2026-05-25ubuntu
ubuntusudo (1.8.16-0ubuntu1.10+esm1) @ xenial2026-05-25ubuntu
ubuntusudo (1.8.9p5-1ubuntu1.5+esm7) @ trusty2026-05-25ubuntu
redhatsudo-0:1.8.19p2-12.el7_4.32023-05-23redhat
redhatsudo-0:1.8.23-3.el7_6.32023-05-23redhat
redhatsudo-0:1.8.23-4.el7_7.42023-05-23redhat
redhatredhat-virtualization-host-0:4.5.3-202302150956_8.62023-02-21redhat
redhatsudo-0:1.8.29-7.el8_4.22023-01-23redhat
redhatsudo-0:1.8.29-8.el8_6.12023-01-23redhat
redhatsudo-0:1.9.5p2-7.el9_0.22023-01-23redhat
redhatsudo-0:1.8.23-10.el7_9.32023-01-23redhat
redhatsudo-0:1.8.29-5.el8_2.22023-01-23redhat
redhatsudo-0:1.8.6p3-29.el6_10.72023-01-23redhat
redhatsudo-0:1.8.29-8.el8_7.12023-01-23redhat
redhatsudo-0:1.8.25p1-8.el8_1.32023-01-23redhat
redhatsudo-0:1.9.5p2-7.el9_1.12023-01-23redhat

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(7 across 7 ecosystems)
Alpine:v3.14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
sudo—1.9.12_p2-r0—
Alpine:v3.15(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
sudo—1.9.12_p2-r0—
Debian:10(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
sudo1.8.27-1, 1.8.27-1+deb10u1, 1.8.27-1+deb10u2, 1.8.27-1+deb10u3, 1.8.27-1+deb10u41.8.27-1+deb10u5—
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
sudo1.9.5p2-31.9.5p2-3+deb11u1—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
sudo—1.9.12p2-1—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
sudo—1.9.12p2-1—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
sudo—1.9.12p2-1—

Weakness Classification(1)

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

All Vendor Advisories

(17)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 5× in last 7d / 22× 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.

Showing the most recent 100 of 116 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-08-30 01:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-08-28 21:38 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-08-26 14:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-08-25 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-08-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-08-21 23:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-08-20 22:53 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-08-19 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-08-18 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-08-18 05:04 UTCOSV refresh
  11. 2026-08-17 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-08-16 14:53 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-08-16 02:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-08-15 01:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-08-15 01:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-08-13 21:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-08-12 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-08-08 16:34 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-08-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-08-05 19:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-08-02 23:57 UTCOSV refresh
  22. 2026-08-01 04:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-30 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-30 01:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-30 01:28 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-07-28 15:34 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-25 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-25 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-24 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-23 02:19 UTCEG score recompute▲ 0.60
  8. 2026-07-22 23:06 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-20 17:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-07-16 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-07-16 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-07-16 08:49 UTCOSV refresh
  18. 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-13 06:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-12 05:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-12 05:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-07-09 19:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-07-02 16:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-07-01 15:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-06-30 23:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-06-28 08:22 UTCOSV refresh
  34. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-06-27 03:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-06-21 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-06-21 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-06-17 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-06-17 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-06-16 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-06-16 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-06-16 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-06-15 17:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-06-11 13:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  56. 2026-06-10 22:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  57. 2026-06-10 18:47 UTCOSV refresh
  58. 2026-06-10 13:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  59. 2026-06-10 13:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  60. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  61. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  62. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  63. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  64. 2026-06-05 22:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  65. 2026-06-05 22:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  66. 2026-06-05 22:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  67. 2026-06-05 06:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-06-05 06:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  69. 2026-06-04 13:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  70. 2026-06-04 13:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-06-02 20:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  72. 2026-06-02 20:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  73. 2026-06-02 20:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  74. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore

Publicly available exploits

(9 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 Metasploit module) (7 GitHub PoCs) (1 Exploit-DB entry). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCD0rDa4aN919/CVE-2023-22809-Exploiter
    First seen Aug 28, 2024
    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCToothless5143/CVE-2023-22809
    First seen Aug 6, 2023

    Running this exploit on a vulnerable system allows a local attacker to gain a root shell on the machine.

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCasepsaepdin/CVE-2023-22809
    First seen Jul 10, 2023
    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCChan9Yan9/CVE-2023-22809
    First seen Jun 20, 2023

    Analysis & Exploit

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCP4x1s/CVE-2023-22809-sudo-POC
    First seen Apr 6, 2023

    CVE-2023-22809 Linux Sudo

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-51217
    First seen Apr 3, 2023

    sudo 1.8.0 to 1.9.12p1 - Privilege Escalation

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCM4fiaB0y/CVE-2023-22809
    First seen Feb 22, 2023
    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCn3m1sys/CVE-2023-22809-sudoedit-privesc
    First seen Jan 21, 2023

    A script to automate privilege escalation with CVE-2023-22809 vulnerability

    Open source ↗
  • Metasploitexploit/linux/local/sudoedit_bypass_priv_esc✓ verified
    First seen Jan 18, 2023

    Sudoedit Extra Arguments Priv Esc

    Open source ↗

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2023-22809?
CVE-2023-22809 is a high vulnerability published on January 18, 2023. In Sudo before 1.9.12p2, the sudoedit (aka -e) feature mishandles extra arguments passed in the user-provided environment variables (SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL, and EDITOR), allowing a local attacker to append arbitrary entries to the list of files to process. This can lead to privilege escalation.…
When was CVE-2023-22809 disclosed?
CVE-2023-22809 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on January 18, 2023, with the most recent update on April 4, 2025. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2023-22809 actively exploited?
CVE-2023-22809 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 55% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 1.0% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-22809?
CVE-2023-22809 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD). EchelonGraph synthesises NVD + CISA KEV + FIRST EPSS + GHSA into a combined EG score of 8.4.
How do I remediate CVE-2023-22809?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2023-22809, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2023-22809

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