# CVE-2023-4001: Grub2: bypass the grub password protection feature > An attacker with physical access can bypass GRUB password protection on Red Hat systems by using a USB drive with a duplicate UUID. - **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:P/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:** Local or same network only - **Victim action needed:** Not needed - **Fix available:** Yes - **Published:** 15 Jan 2024 - **Updated:** 20 Nov 2025 - **Also known as:** ALSA-2024:0468, CLSA-2024-1712672279, GHSA-rr4v-xrwq-7rhx, RHSA-2024:0437, RHSA-2024:0456, RHSA-2024:0468, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-4001 ## What is CVE-2023-4001? CVE-2023-4001 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 15 Jan 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim. ### Official description An authentication bypass flaw was found in GRUB due to the way that GRUB uses the UUID of a device to search for the configuration file that contains the password hash for the GRUB password protection feature. An attacker capable of attaching an external drive such as a USB stick containing a file system with a duplicate UUID (the same as in the "/boot/" file system) can bypass the GRUB password protection feature on UEFI systems, which enumerate removable drives before non-removable ones. This issue was introduced in a downstream patch in Red Hat's version of grub2 and does not affect the upstream package. Weakness: CWE-290 (Authentication Bypass by Spoofing) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-4001? It affects 3 products. | Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `grub2-common` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-efi-aa64` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-efi-aa64-cdboot` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-efi-aa64-modules` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-efi-x64` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-efi-x64-cdboot` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-efi-x64-modules` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-pc` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-pc-modules` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-ppc64le` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-ppc64le-modules` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-tools` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-tools-efi` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-tools-extra` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2-tools-minimal` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | | `grub2` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-common` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-debugsource` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-efi-aa64` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-efi-aa64-cdboot` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-efi-aa64-modules` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-efi-x64` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-efi-x64-cdboot` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-efi-x64-modules` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-emu-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-pc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-pc-modules` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-ppc64le` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-ppc64le-modules` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-tools-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-tools-efi` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-tools-efi-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-tools-extra` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-tools-extra-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-tools-minimal` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2-tools-minimal-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 | | `grub2` | Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-27.el9_0.16 | | `grub2-common` | Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::baseos | All versions | 1:2.06-27.el9_0.16 | Products: Fedoraproject Fedora, Gnu Grub2, Redhat Enterprise Linux. ## How do I fix CVE-2023-4001? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2023-4001 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-4001 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Other vulnerabilities in Fedoraproject Fedora - [CVE-2024-4577](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4577/): PHP-CGI OS Command Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2021-39226](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39226/): Grafana Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2019-5544](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5544/): VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS OpenSLP Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2024-4947](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4947/): Google Chromium V8 Type Confusion (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2024-4671](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4671/): Google Chromium Visuals Use-After-Free (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild) ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2023-4001 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2023-4001 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 15 Jan 2024. 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-2023-4001 in the wild and no public exploit code. Affected product: Fedoraproject Fedora. 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-2023-4001/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-4001/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-4001 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-4001 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-4001 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-4001/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.