August 26, 2026 · Applied Cybernetics Group
CVE-2015-3246 Red Hat Libuser
Red Hat Libuser Race Condition Vulnerability
- Added to KEV
2026-08-26- Federal due date
2026-09-09- Vendor
- Red Hat
- Product
- Libuser
- EPSS
- 95.1th percentile (score 0.085, as of
2026-11-06) - NVD CVSS v3.1
- 7.4 (HIGH)
- Ransomware use
- Unknown
- Upstream
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-3246
CISA short description
Red Hat libuser contains a race condition vulnerability that allows authenticated local users to corrupt the /etc/passwd file to cause a denial of service or privilege escalation.
Required action
Apply mitigations in accordance with vendor instructions, ensuring compliance with CISA’s BOD 26-04 Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk (see URL in Notes) guidance and CISA’s “Forensics Triage Requirements” (see URL in Notes). Follow applicable BOD 26-04 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Stakeholders are responsible for evaluating each asset's internet exposure and ensuring adherence to BOD 26-04 patching guidelines.
NVD description
libuser before 0.56.13-8 and 0.60 before 0.60-7, as used in the userhelper program in the usermode package, directly modifies /etc/passwd, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (inconsistent file state) by causing an error during the modification. NOTE: this issue can be combined with CVE-2015-3245 to gain privileges.