# CVE-2019-19232: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Attackers with sudo access can impersonate nonexistent users via numeric UIDs, potentially bypassing intended user restrictions.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 19 Dec 2019
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2019-19232, GHSA-g292-5fg6-fchh, UBUNTU-CVE-2019-19232

## What is CVE-2019-19232?

CVE-2019-19232 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 19 Dec 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In Sudo through 1.8.29, an attacker with access to a Runas ALL sudoer account can impersonate a nonexistent user by invoking sudo with a numeric uid that is not associated with any user. NOTE: The software maintainer believes that this is not a vulnerability because running a command via sudo as a user not present in the local password database is an intentional feature. Because this behavior surprised some users, sudo 1.8.30 introduced an option to enable/disable this behavior with the default being disabled. However, this does not change the fact that sudo was behaving as intended, and as documented, in earlier versions

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-19232?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Sudo Sudo.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-19232?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2019-19232 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-19232 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2019-19234](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-19234/): Auth bypass in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-19232 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-19232 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 19 Dec 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-2019-19232 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-2019-19232/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-19232/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-19232
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-19232
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-19232

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-19232/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.