# CVE-2011-3628: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can escalate privileges by manipulating the PATH environment variable in specific PAM configurations.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.9 (`AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 15 Apr 2014
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2011-3628, GHSA-9hgw-rg97-xh38

## What is CVE-2011-3628?

CVE-2011-3628 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 15 Apr 2014. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Untrusted search path vulnerability in pam_motd (aka the MOTD module) in libpam-modules before 1.1.3-2ubuntu2.1 on Ubuntu 11.10, before 1.1.2-2ubuntu8.4 on Ubuntu 11.04, before 1.1.1-4ubuntu2.4 on Ubuntu 10.10, before 1.1.1-2ubuntu5.4 on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, and before 0.99.7.1-5ubuntu6.5 on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, when using certain configurations such as "session optional pam_motd.so", allows local users to gain privileges by modifying the PATH environment variable to reference a malicious command, as demonstrated via uname.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2011-3628?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Canonical Libpam-Modules, Canonical Ubuntu Linux.

## How do I fix CVE-2011-3628?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2011-3628 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-3628 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2011-3628 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2011-3628 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 15 Apr 2014. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-3628 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Canonical Ubuntu Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3628/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3628/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2011-3628
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2011-3628
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2011-3628

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3628/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.