CVE-2026-48986

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 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//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.

CVSS v3
4.7
EG Score
4.7(medium)
EPSS
1.2%
KEV
Not listed

Published

June 18, 2026

Last Modified

June 22, 2026

Advisory Details (2)

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

[R6-2] Infinite loop DoS in process-tree walk when parent process exits during authentication · Advisory · mcdope/pam_usb · GitHub

https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/security/advisories/GHSA-h28h-9hc3-v595
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(1)

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

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 10× in last 7d / 36× 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. 2026-07-12 05:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-11 22:08 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-07-10 19:47 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-09 19:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-09 17:27 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-07-08 15:04 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-07-07 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-07 12:35 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-07-06 16:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-06 09:53 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-07-05 07:33 UTCEG score recompute
  12. 2026-07-05 02:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-04 06:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-04 05:05 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-07-03 02:40 UTCEG score recompute
  16. 2026-07-02 00:19 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-07-01 15:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-30 23:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-30 21:58 UTCEG score recompute
  20. 2026-06-29 19:38 UTCEG score recompute
  21. 2026-06-28 17:16 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-06-28 14:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-27 14:55 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-06-26 12:34 UTCEG score recompute
  25. 2026-06-25 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 11 more
  1. 2026-06-25 10:13 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-06-24 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-06-24 07:51 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-06-23 21:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-06-23 21:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-23 05:29 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-06-22 03:05 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-06-21 00:11 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-06-19 21:47 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-06-18 19:24 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-06-18 19:23 UTCNVD updatefirst tracked

Related CVEs(same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-48986?
CVE-2026-48986 is a medium vulnerability published on June 18, 2026. pamusb provides hardware authentication for Linux using removable media. In pamusb 0.9.1 and earlier, usbgetprocessparentid() can cause an infinite loop DoS because it does not initialize *ppid on failure. In pusblocallogin(), the same variable is reused as input and output in a process-tree while…
When was CVE-2026-48986 disclosed?
CVE-2026-48986 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-2026-48986 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-48986 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 1.2% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-48986?
CVE-2026-48986 has a CVSS v3 base score of 4.7 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-48986?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-48986, 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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