CVE-2025-32463 — sudo
CRITICALCVE-2025-32463 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.3) CWE-829 vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2025-09-29) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2025-09-29. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2025-10-20.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2025-32463.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2025-32463 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
Sudo before 1.9.17p1 allows local users to obtain root access because /etc/nsswitch.conf from a user-controlled directory is used with the --chroot option.
Affected Products
ubuntu linuxcanonicaldebian linuxdebianleapopensuseenterprise linuxredhatsudosudo_projectlinux enterprise desktopsuseResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Sudo chroot 1.9.17 - Local Privilege Escalation
by Stratascale · Jul 8, 2025
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).
Fix
Upgrade the affected component to the fixed release for CVE-2025-32463, or apply your distribution's backported patch — distro builds are often patched at an older version number, so check your vendor's advisory rather than the upstream version alone.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
The severity of this vulnerability is rated as Important due to the requirement that an attacker must have access to a valid account on a system and that it allows a local unprivileged attacker to escalate their privileges even if the account is not listed in the sudoers file. Due to the limited range of vulnerable…
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2025-32463 (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | sudo-0:1.9.15-8.p5.el10_0.2 | RHSA-2025:11537 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-32463 in your dependencies?
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