CVE-2023-29383

LOWNVD 3.33.3
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

“—” beside the score: it is equal to NVD's CVSS score.

Score 3.3 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: LOW) published 2023-04-15. NVD baseline CVSS 3.3; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: EPSS, GitHub Security Advisory, NVD CVSS v3
Elevated
3.3EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixRemediate within your standard update timelines (the SSVC decision on this page).
  • CISA's Vulnrichment rates exploitation as PoC; EchelonGraph holds no exploit-code reference for it
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.4%CVSS: 3.3Exploit: No code on recordExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

In Shadow 4.13, it is possible to inject control characters into fields provided to the SUID program chfn (change finger). Although it is not possible to exploit this directly (e.g., adding a new user fails because \n is in the block list), it is possible to misrepresent the /etc/passwd file when viewed. Use of \r manipulations and Unicode characters to work around blocking of the : character make it possible to give the impression that a new user has been added. In other words, an adversary may be able to convince a system administrator to take the system offline (an indirect, social-engineered denial of service) by demonstrating that "cat /etc/passwd" shows a rogue user account.

CVSS v3
3.3
EG Score
3.3LOWmedium confidence
EG Risk
31
EG Risk 31/100

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 (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)
Severity33% × 45%
The EG Score, 3.3 of 10.
Exploitation40% × 40%
EchelonGraph's fixed weight for EG-KEV Tier 3 (Elevated): a constant, not a probability.
Automatability0% × 15%
CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).
Exploitation public PoC (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.
EPSS PROB
0.4%
EPSS %ILE
34th
KEV
Not listed

SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.

Exploitation public PoC (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table

BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)60 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.

In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it

Published

April 14, 2023

Last Modified

November 3, 2025

References (5)

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2023-29383(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Affected Packages

(4 across 4 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
shadow1:4.8.1-1
  • every version up to 1:4.8.1-1+deb11u1: fixed in 1:4.8.1-1+deb11u1
—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
shadow1:4.13+dfsg1-1
  • every version up to 1:4.13+dfsg1-1+deb12u1: fixed in 1:4.13+dfsg1-1+deb12u1
—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
shadow—
  • every version up to 1:4.13+dfsg1-2: fixed in 1:4.13+dfsg1-2
—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
shadow—
  • every version up to 1:4.13+dfsg1-2: fixed in 1:4.13+dfsg1-2
—

Weakness Classification(2)

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

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 8× in last 7d / 26× in last 30d)

Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. 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. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 87 of 179 refreshes on record for this CVE.

A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. 13 repeat rows among the latest 100 are merged into the row they repeat. The 92 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.

  1. 2026-10-11 21:54 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-10-11 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  3. 2026-10-10 19:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  4. 2026-10-09 20:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  5. 2026-10-08 17:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  6. 2026-10-07 23:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  7. 2026-10-06 15:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  8. 2026-10-05 17:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  9. 2026-10-04 23:20 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  10. 2026-10-03 14:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  11. 2026-10-02 16:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  12. 2026-10-01 19:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  13. 2026-09-30 16:21 UTCEG score recompute
  14. 2026-09-30 15:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  15. 2026-09-29 15:16 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  16. 2026-09-28 13:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  17. 2026-09-27 13:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  18. 2026-09-26 00:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  19. 2026-09-24 14:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  20. 2026-09-23 14:34 UTCOSV refresh
  21. 2026-09-23 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 36th percentile
  22. 2026-09-22 14:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 36th percentile
  23. 2026-09-20 20:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 36th percentile
  24. 2026-09-16 14:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 36th percentile
  25. 2026-09-13 16:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 36th percentile
Show 62 more
  1. 2026-09-12 14:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 36th percentile
  2. 2026-09-11 14:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 36th percentile
  3. 2026-09-11 09:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 36th percentile
  4. 2026-09-08 21:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  5. 2026-09-07 15:59 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  6. 2026-09-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  7. 2026-09-05 15:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  8. 2026-09-04 13:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  9. 2026-09-04 09:16 UTCOSV refresh
  10. 2026-09-04 05:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  11. 2026-09-02 14:09 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  12. 2026-09-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  13. 2026-08-30 19:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  14. 2026-08-30 01:19 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  15. 2026-08-28 21:38 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  16. 2026-08-27 14:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  17. 2026-08-26 14:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  18. 2026-08-25 13:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  19. 2026-08-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  20. 2026-08-23 00:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  21. 2026-08-21 23:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  22. 2026-08-20 22:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  23. 2026-08-19 17:02 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  24. 2026-08-18 13:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  25. 2026-08-17 19:59 UTCOSV refresh
  26. 2026-08-17 13:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  27. 2026-08-16 14:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  28. 2026-08-16 02:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  29. 2026-08-15 01:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  30. 2026-08-13 21:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  31. 2026-08-12 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  32. 2026-08-11 13:39 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  33. 2026-08-09 13:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  34. 2026-08-08 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  35. 2026-08-07 16:24 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  36. 2026-08-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  37. 2026-08-05 19:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  38. 2026-08-04 15:07 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  39. 2026-08-04 10:35 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  40. 2026-08-03 10:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  41. 2026-08-02 15:27 UTCOSV refresh
  42. 2026-08-02 02:24 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  43. 2026-08-01 04:13 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  44. 2026-07-30 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  45. 2026-07-30 01:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  46. 2026-07-28 15:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  47. 2026-07-27 14:10 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  48. 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  49. 2026-07-25 14:16 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  50. 2026-07-24 14:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 35th percentile
  51. 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  52. 2026-07-23 02:21 UTCEG score recompute
  53. 2026-07-22 23:09 UTCEG score recompute
  54. 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  55. 2026-07-21 15:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  56. 2026-07-20 17:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  57. 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  58. 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  59. 2026-07-18 10:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  60. 2026-07-16 17:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  61. 2026-07-15 22:53 UTCOSV refresh
  62. 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile

Related CVEs(same product + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2023-29383?
CVE-2023-29383 is a low-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on April 14, 2023. In Shadow 4.13, it is possible to inject control characters into fields provided to the SUID program chfn (change finger). Although it is not possible to exploit this directly (e.g., adding a new user fails because \n is in the block list), it is possible to misrepresent the /etc/passwd file when…
When was the CVE record for CVE-2023-29383 published?
The CVE record for CVE-2023-29383 was published on April 14, 2023. That is the record's publication date; the vulnerability itself may have been made public earlier. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of November 3, 2025; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2023-29383 actively exploited?
CVE-2023-29383 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (34th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-29383?
CVE-2023-29383 has a CVSS v3 base score of 3.3 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2023-29383?
A fix for CVE-2023-29383 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2023-29383 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.

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