Reference page — cumulative record through Monday, October 19, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.

CVE-2023-29383

CVE-2023-29383LOW

n/a n/a — In Shadow 4.13, it is possible to inject control characters into fields provided to the SUID program chfn (change finger).

  AV  AC  PR  UI  S  C  I  A   CVSS    EPSS   %ile   KEV
   L   L   L   N  U  N  L  N    3.3   .0043   35.4     —

AFFECTED
  Product  Versions  Fixed
  n/a      n/a –     —

TIMELINE
  Apr 5   Reserved by mitre
  Apr 14  Published (CNA: mitre)
  Oct 14  ENRICHED — CVE-2023-29383. Received CVSS 3.3 and CPE data from NVD.
  Oct 14  EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2023-29383. Public exploit reference added.

CWE-74, CWE-125 · CNA: mitre · CVSS v3.1 · 7 references · NVD status: Modified

Description

In Shadow 4.13, it is possible to inject control characters into fields provided to the SUID program chfn (change finger). Although it is not possible to exploit this directly (e.g., adding a new user fails because \n is in the block list), it is possible to misrepresent the /etc/passwd file when viewed. Use of \r manipulations and Unicode characters to work around blocking of the : character make it possible to give the impression that a new user has been added. In other words, an adversary may be able to convince a system administrator to take the system offline (an indirect, social-engineered denial of service) by demonstrating that "cat /etc/passwd" shows a rogue user account.

Lifecycle

Complete event history — 4 events, chronological
Date	Event	Detail
April 5, 2023	Reserved	Reserved by mitre
April 14, 2023	Published	Published (CNA: mitre)
October 14, 2026	ENRICHED	ENRICHED — CVE-2023-29383. Received CVSS 3.3 and CPE data from NVD.
October 14, 2026	EXPLOIT PUBLISHED	EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2023-29383. Public exploit reference added.

Affected

Affected products and packages — 1 row
Vendor	Product / Package	Ecosystem	Version introduced	Fixed
n/a	n/a	—	n/a	—

Weaknesses

CWE-74 · CWE-125

References (7)

https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-202008.html
https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-398330.html
https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow/commit/e5905c4b84d4fb90aefcd96ee618411ebfac663d [Patch]
https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow/pull/687 [Issue Tracking]
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/04/msg00026.html
https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/spiderlabs-blog/cve-2023-29383-abusing-linux-chfn-to-misrepresent-etc-passwd/ [Exploit, Third Party Advisory]
https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/security-resources/security-advisories/?fid=31797 [Exploit, Third Party Advisory]

Authoritative record: CVE-2023-29383 at cve.org

Weaknesses: CWE-74 · CWE-125

About this page

This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2023-29383 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Monday, October 19, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.