CVE-2026-44713 HIGH

CVE-2026-44713: pam_usb: Command injection via $TMUX environment variable leads to RCE as root

Vendor Mcdope
Product pam_usb
Weakness CWE-78
Published May 27, 2026
Last update May 30, 2026

CVSS base score

8.8/10
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required Low
User interaction None
Confidentiality High
Integrity High

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. Prior to 0.8.7, src/tmux.c reads the user's $TMUX environment variable, splits it on commas, and interpolates the socket-path component directly into a shell command passed to popen(). Because the value is placed inside double-quotes without sanitisation, any value containing " terminates the quoted string and injects arbitrary shell syntax. popen() runs as root inside the PAM stack. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.8.7.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

May 27, 2026 CVE published
May 30, 2026 Record updated