FreeBSD up to 13.4 p2/14.1 p6/14.2 etcupdate conflicts permission assignment

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in FreeBSD up to 13.4 p2/14.1 p6/14.2 and classified as problematic. This issue affects some unknown processing of the file /var/db/etcupdate/conflicts of the component etcupdate. Performing a manipulation results in permission assignment. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-0374. Attacking locally is a requirement. No exploit is available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in FreeBSD up to 13.4 p2/14.1 p6/14.2. It has been classified as problematic. This affects an unknown part of the file /var/db/etcupdate/conflicts of the component etcupdate. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a permission assignment vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-732. The product specifies permissions for a security-critical resource in a way that allows that resource to be read or modified by unintended actors. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality. The summary by CVE is:

When etcupdate encounters conflicts while merging files, it saves a version containing conflict markers in /var/db/etcupdate/conflicts. This version does not preserve the mode of the input file, and is world-readable. This applies to files that would normally have restricted visibility, such as /etc/master.passwd. An unprivileged local user may be able to read encrypted root and user passwords from the temporary master.passwd file created in /var/db/etcupdate/conflicts. This is possible only when conflicts within the password file arise during an update, and the unprotected file is deleted when conflicts are resolved.

The weakness was published by Christos Chatzaras. The advisory is shared at security.freebsd.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-0374 since 01/10/2025. The exploitability is told to be easy. An attack has to be approached locally. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 13.4 p3/14.1 p7/14.2 p1 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Name

• FreeBSD

Version

• 13.4 p2
• 14.0
• 14.1
• 14.1 p6
• 14.2

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://www.freebsd.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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