{"id":59690,"date":"2025-07-27T21:35:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T21:35:19","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-21T04:13:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T10:13:30","slug":"cve-2025-23395-critical-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-screen-5-0-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-23395-critical-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-screen-5-0-0\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-23395: Critical Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Screen 5.0.0<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has recently identified a critical security vulnerability, CVE-2025-23395, affecting Screen 5.0.0. This software, when run with setuid-root privileges, fails to drop these elevated privileges while operating on a user-supplied path. This vulnerability holds grave implications for all systems running the affected version of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-46835-high-risk-vulnerability-in-git-gui-allows-unauthorized-file-overwrite\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"66842\">Screen<\/a> as it allows unprivileged users to exploit this flaw and potentially gain root access, thereby compromising the entire system. Given the widespread use of Screen, this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49759-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-sql-server-potentially-enabling-privilege-escalation-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"79156\">vulnerability holds potential<\/a> for extensive damage and is of significant concern to system administrators and cybersecurity professionals alike.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-23395<br \/>\nSeverity: High (7.8)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-50160-heap-based-buffer-overflow-in-windows-rras-posing-system-compromise-risk\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"78554\">System compromise<\/a>, data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2518357926\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>Screen | 5.0.0<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-40737-critical-file-path-validation-vulnerability-in-sinec-nms\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"66626\">vulnerability arises from the program&#8217;s mishandling of user-supplied paths<\/a>. When Screen 5.0.0 runs with setuid-root privileges, it does not correctly drop these privileges when operating on a user-supplied path. This loophole allows an unprivileged user to create <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-40738-critical-arbitrary-file-write-vulnerability-in-sinec-nms\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"66570\">files in arbitrary<\/a> locations with root ownership. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-9693-arbitrary-file-deletion-vulnerability-in-user-meta-user-profile-builder-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90619\">files also retain the invoking user&#8217;s<\/a> group ownership and file mode 0644. In essence, all data written to the Screen PTY will be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-3831-unauthorized-access-to-log-files-through-harmony-sase-agent\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"81620\">logged into this file<\/a>. This situation can be exploited to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-7695-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-dataverse-integration-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"69169\">escalate to root privileges<\/a>, granting the attacker complete control over the compromised system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-4004955235\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a<br \/>\n<strong>conceptual<\/strong><br \/>\n example of how the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-7097-critical-command-injection-vulnerability-in-comodo-internet-security-premium\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"68244\">vulnerability might be exploited using a shell command:<\/a><\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\"># command to start Screen with setuid-root privileges\n\/usr\/bin\/screen -D -m -L \/root\/privileged.file\n# command to write data to the Screen PTY\necho &quot;malicious_command&quot; &gt; \/dev\/pts\/X # X corresponds to the screen session PTY\n# The above command logs the data into \/root\/privileged.file with root ownership\n# The attacker can thus manipulate this file to gain root access<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>This example serves to illustrate the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-7419-critical-vulnerability-discovered-in-tenda-o3v2-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"69170\">potential exploitation of the vulnerability<\/a>. Actual exploitation may vary based on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43192-critical-configuration-issue-in-macos-allowing-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"78555\">system&#8217;s configuration<\/a> and the attacker&#8217;s capabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has recently identified a critical security vulnerability, CVE-2025-23395, affecting Screen 5.0.0. This software, when run with setuid-root privileges, fails to drop these elevated privileges while operating on a user-supplied path. This vulnerability holds grave implications for all systems running the affected version of Screen as it allows [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[76],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-59690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-privilege-escalation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59690"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83563,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59690\/revisions\/83563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59690"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=59690"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=59690"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=59690"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=59690"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=59690"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=59690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}