# CVE-2019-15900: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Attackers can execute commands as root on non-OpenBSD platforms due to unchecked sscanf errors in doas, leading to privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 18 Oct 2019
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-687w-xp39-q584

## What is CVE-2019-15900?

CVE-2019-15900 is a critical vulnerability in n/a, published on 18 Oct 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in slicer69 doas before 6.2 on certain platforms other than OpenBSD. On platforms without strtonum(3), sscanf was used without checking for error cases. Instead, the uninitialized variable errstr was checked and in some cases returned success even if sscanf failed. The result was that, instead of reporting that the supplied username or group name did not exist, it would execute the command as root.

Weakness: CWE-908 (Use of Uninitialized Resource), CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization), CWE-754 (Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions), CWE-252 (Unchecked Return Value)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-15900?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Doas Project Doas.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-15900?

No fix has been published for CVE-2019-15900 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2019-15900 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-15900 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2019-15901](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-15901/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-15900 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-15900 is a critical vulnerability in n/a, published on 18 Oct 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-15900 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2019-15900/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-15900/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-15900
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-15900
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-15900

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-15900/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.