{"id":63962,"date":"2025-08-10T20:43:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T20:43:19","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-11-02T15:08:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T21:08:02","slug":"cve-2025-6020-linux-pam-module-vulnerability-allowing-privilege-escalation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-6020-linux-pam-module-vulnerability-allowing-privilege-escalation\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-6020: Linux-PAM Module Vulnerability Allowing Privilege Escalation<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A critical flaw has been identified in linux-pam, specifically within the pam_namespace module. This vulnerability, assigned CVE-2025-6020, could potentially allow local users to elevate their privileges to root level. Due to the module&#8217;s improper protection of user-controlled paths, it is susceptible to multiple symlink attacks and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43275-critical-race-condition-vulnerability-in-macos\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"71669\">race conditions<\/a>.<br \/>\nThis vulnerability is of significant concern as it provides an avenue for malicious actors to potentially <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=\"78599\">compromise a system<\/a> or leak sensitive data. It is crucial for system administrators, developers, and security professionals who are utilizing or managing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27046-critical-memory-corruption-vulnerability-threatening-system-integrity\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"75095\">systems with linux-pam to understand the implications of this vulnerability<\/a> and take the necessary measures to mitigate its risks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-6020<br \/>\nSeverity: High (7.8 CVSS)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27050-memory-corruption-vulnerability-leading-to-potential-system-compromise-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74894\">Potential system compromise or data<\/a> leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-4193941698\" 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: 720px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center; letter-spacing: -0.02em;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 10px;\">\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: 42px; height: 42px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    Share secrets securely\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 14px; color: #d1d5db;\">\r\n    Ameeba is private infrastructure for communication and sensitive work built on encrypted identity instead of exposed corporate identity systems.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 18px; color: #a1a1aa;\">\r\n    Passwords, credentials, confidential files, screenshots, internal discussions, sensitive AI context, and private coordination should not become exposed across ordinary communication platforms.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #e4e4e7;\">\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Private Spaces for organizations and teams<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, files, and notes<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Sensitive AI work and protected collaboration<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Built for information that cannot leak<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #ffffff;\">\r\n    Our mission is to secure human work alongside AI.\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: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Download Ameeba\r\n    <\/a>\r\n\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Learn More\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>Linux-PAM | All <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-55010-arbitrary-php-object-instantiation-in-kanboard-prior-to-version-1-2-47\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"78068\">versions prior<\/a> to patch<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability in the pam_namespace <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54453-path-traversal-vulnerability-in-samsung-magicinfo-9-server\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"71865\">module of Linux-PAM<\/a> arises due to its unprotected use of user-controlled paths. A local user can exploit this flaw by launching multiple symlink attacks and inducing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54655-race-condition-vulnerability-in-virtualization-base-module\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"75702\">race conditions<\/a>. This attack allows the user to create symbolic links that point to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52239-arbitrary-file-upload-vulnerability-in-zkeacms-v4-1\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74583\">arbitrary files<\/a> on the system. Given the right conditions, this can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-33075-a-critical-windows-installer-vulnerability-that-leads-to-privilege-elevation\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72374\">lead to the local user escalating their privileges<\/a> to root level, providing them unlimited access to the system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3619578168\" 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>An example of how the vulnerability might be exploited is as follows:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">$ ln -s \/etc\/shadow \/tmp\/pam_namespace\n$ chmod 777 \/tmp\/pam_namespace\n$ su -c &#039;cp \/tmp\/pam_namespace \/etc\/&#039;<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this conceptual example, 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=\"90618\">user creates a symbolic link to the \/etc\/shadow file<\/a>, which holds password data. They then change the permissions of the symlink to grant full <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-3498-unauthenticated-user-access-and-modification-of-radiflow-isap-smart-collector-configuration\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"92258\">access to all users<\/a>. Finally, using the &#8216;su&#8217; command, they copy the symlink into the \/etc\/ directory, effectively providing a path for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-6754-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-seo-metrics-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72715\">privilege escalation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Remediation Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The most effective way to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43728-protection-mechanism-failure-vulnerability-in-dell-thinos\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90260\">protect against this vulnerability<\/a> is to apply the vendor-supplied patch. In the absence of a patch, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. These systems can monitor and block suspicious activities, including symlink attacks and other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-7457-macos-authorization-model-exploit-leading-to-potential-mitm-attacks\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80123\">potential exploit<\/a> attempts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview A critical flaw has been identified in linux-pam, specifically within the pam_namespace module. This vulnerability, assigned CVE-2025-6020, could potentially allow local users to elevate their privileges to root level. Due to the module&#8217;s improper protection of user-controlled paths, it is susceptible to multiple symlink attacks and race conditions. This vulnerability is of significant concern [&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":[88],"product":[],"attack_vector":[76],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-63962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-linux","attack_vector-privilege-escalation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63962","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=63962"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85474,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63962\/revisions\/85474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63962"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=63962"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=63962"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=63962"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=63962"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=63962"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=63962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}