CVE-2025-46802 Temporary chown() of users' TTY to mode 0666 allows PTY hijacking in screen
A local attacker can hijack another user's screen session by connecting to a temporary world-writable PTY, leading to privilege escalation and data exposure.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-46802?
CVE-2025-46802 is a medium-severity vulnerability in SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP6, published on 26 May 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
For a short time they PTY is set to mode 666, allowing any user on the system to connect to the screen session.
Weakness: CWE-732
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-46802?
Linux distribution packages (8)
screen SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 | All versions | 4.6.2-150000.5.8.1 |
screen SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 | All versions | 4.6.2-150000.5.8.1 |
screen SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | All versions | 4.6.2-150000.5.8.1 |
screen SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 | All versions | 4.6.2-150000.5.8.1 |
screen SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 | All versions | 4.6.2-150000.5.8.1 |
screen SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 | All versions | 4.0.4-23.9.1 |
screen openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | All versions | 4.6.2-150000.5.8.1 |
screen openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 4.9.1-5.1 |
How do I fix CVE-2025-46802?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-46802 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-46802 exists.
Sources
Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2025-46802, BELL-CVE-2025-46802, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-46802, GHSA-rh76-vmrr-w867, SUSE-SU-2025:02016-1, SUSE-SU-2025:02186-1 and 2 more.