PAM Namespace Race: Local Priv Escal via Symlinks in linux-pam
CVE-2025-6020 Published on June 17, 2025

Linux-pam: linux-pam directory traversal
A flaw was found in linux-pam. The module pam_namespace may use access user-controlled paths without proper protection, allowing local users to elevate their privileges to root via multiple symlink attacks and race conditions.

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Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2025-6020 is exploitable with local system access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.

Attack Vector:
LOCAL
Attack Complexity:
LOW
Privileges Required:
LOW
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
HIGH
Integrity Impact:
HIGH
Availability Impact:
HIGH

Timeline

Reported to Red Hat.

Made public. 5 days later.

Weakness Type

What is a Directory traversal Vulnerability?

The software uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the software does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.

CVE-2025-6020 has been classified to as a Directory traversal vulnerability or weakness.


Products Associated with CVE-2025-6020

You can be notified by email with stack.watch whenever vulnerabilities like CVE-2025-6020 are published in these products:

Rhelels 7
 
Enterpriselinux 8
 
Rhelaus 8 2
 
Rhelaus 8 4
 
Rhelaus 8 6
 
Rhele4s 8 6
 
Rheltus 8 6
 
Rhele4s 8 8
 
Rheltus 8 8
 
Enterpriselinux 9
 
Rhele4s 9 0
 
Rhele4s 9 2
 
Rheleus 9 4
 
Rhosemc 1 0
 
Discovery 2
 
Openshiftdistributedtracing 3 6
 
Confidentialcomputeattestation 1 10
 
Red Hat Rhel Els
 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
 
Red Hat Rhel Aus
 
Red Hat Rhel Tus
 
Red Hat Rhel E4s
 
Red Hat Rhel Eus
 
Red Hat Webterminal
 
Red Hat Rhosemc
 
Red Hat Discovery
 
Red Hat Openshift Distributed Tracing
 
Red Hat Confidential Compute Attestation
 
Red Hat Rhivos
 
Red Hat Cert Manager
 
Red Hat Insights Proxy
 
Red Hat Openshift Compliance Operator
 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Eus
 
Red Hat Openshift Serverless
 

Exploit Probability

EPSS
0.02%
Percentile
4.54%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.