su-exec through 0.3 Privilege Escalation via Numeric User ID

Advisories

su-exec through 0.3 Privilege Escalation via Numeric User ID

severity: high
date: 8/29/2026
Affecting: su-exec <= 0.3
CVE: CVE-2026-82457
CWE: CWE-681 Incorrect Conversion between Numeric Types
CVSS: 8.5
CVSS V4 Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
References: Vulnerable code: su-exec.c (strtol into uid_t without range check)
Reporter's write-up
https://github.com/ncopa/su-exec
Credit: Ali Firas
Description: su-exec through 0.3 fails to validate numeric user and group identifiers parsed with strtol before assigning to uid_t and gid_t, allowing truncation of out-of-range values to zero. Attackers can supply large numeric identifiers that truncate to root's identifier, causing su-exec to execute target programs with root privileges instead of intended unprivileged accounts.

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