CVE-2026-48984

MEDIUMPre-NVD 4.74.7—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

This medium-severity CVE scores 4.7 under a secondary CVSS source (NVD's own analysis pending). EPSS exploit probability: 0.1%, top 99% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).

Triggered by: NVD CVSS baseline
Sources: epss, secondary
4.7
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 0%CVSS: 4.7Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. In versions 0.9.1 and below, the xfree() memory release helper in calls free() without first zeroing the buffer contents, releasing heap-allocated buffers containing sensitive data — including one-time pad bytes read from disk — without clearing, leaving the sensitive content in freed heap memory until it happens to be overwritten by a subsequent allocation. On a system where a use-after-free condition exists, or where a heap inspection primitive becomes available, this could allow recovery of pad values or other authentication material from freed memory regions. This is a defence-in-depth requirement consistent with prior hardening work in this codebase (GHSA-vx6f-rrqr-j87c applied explicit_bzero to some pad paths; this issue generalises the pattern to the central deallocation helper).

CVSS v3
4.7
EG Score
4.7(medium)
EPSS
1.5%
KEV
Not listed

Published

June 18, 2026

Last Modified

June 22, 2026

Advisory Details (2)

Auto-updated Jun 18, 2026
Patch available. Sources: github, github_release.
github Patch Available

xfree() does not call explicit_bzero — sensitive cryptographic material may linger in freed heap · Advisory · mcdope/pam_usb · GitHub

https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/security/advisories/GHSA-rmp6-wfrq-wrrc
github_release Patch Available

0.9.2 — Security Hardening Release

Patch available: mcdope/pam_usb 0.9.2

https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/releases/tag/0.9.2

Weakness Classification(2)

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

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 13× in last 7d / 42× 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. 2026-07-11 15:25 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-07-10 16:41 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-07-09 19:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-09 17:54 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-07-08 19:07 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-07-08 15:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-07 20:21 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-07-07 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-06 21:37 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-07-06 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-05 22:41 UTCEG score recompute
  12. 2026-07-05 02:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-04 23:57 UTCEG score recompute
  14. 2026-07-04 06:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-07-04 01:14 UTCEG score recompute
  16. 2026-07-03 02:29 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-07-02 03:45 UTCEG score recompute
  18. 2026-07-01 15:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-01 05:02 UTCEG score recompute
  20. 2026-06-30 23:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-30 06:18 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-06-29 07:35 UTCEG score recompute
  23. 2026-06-28 14:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-28 08:51 UTCEG score recompute
  25. 2026-06-28 04:56 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 17 more
  1. 2026-06-28 04:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-06-27 10:09 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-06-27 03:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-06-26 11:25 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-06-25 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-25 10:32 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-06-24 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-06-24 11:48 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-06-23 21:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-23 21:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-23 13:02 UTCEG score recompute
  12. 2026-06-22 14:18 UTCEG score recompute
  13. 2026-06-21 15:35 UTCEG score recompute
  14. 2026-06-20 16:50 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-06-19 18:07 UTCEG score recompute
  16. 2026-06-18 19:24 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-06-18 19:23 UTCNVD updatefirst tracked

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-48984?
CVE-2026-48984 is a medium vulnerability published on June 18, 2026. pamusb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. In versions 0.9.1 and below, the xfree() memory release helper in calls free() without first zeroing the buffer contents, releasing heap-allocated buffers containing sensitive data — including one-time pad bytes read…
When was CVE-2026-48984 disclosed?
CVE-2026-48984 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on June 18, 2026, with the most recent update on June 22, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2026-48984 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-48984 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 1.5% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-48984?
CVE-2026-48984 has a CVSS v3 base score of 4.7 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-48984?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-48984, 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

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