CVE-2025-6018: Incorrect Authorization
Source CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · public exploit available (Exploit-DB) · CVSS 7.8 High.
Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC
- EPSS
- 1.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 65% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HExploitation evidence
t = 0 is the CVE’s publication on cve.org
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 23 Jul 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: evidence found.
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors
Timeline
CVE ID reserved
by redhat
, 42 days before disclosure
CVE published
on cve.org
, t = 0
In Threat Radar
record ingested
, 19 minutes after disclosure
First Exploit-DB entry (opens in a new tab)
Linux PAM Environment - Variable Injection Local Privilege Escalation
, 5 days after disclosure
A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.
What to do
AI-suggested
Until a patch or official fix is available, restrict local access to trusted users only and monitor for suspicious local activity related to Polkit actions.
Description
A Local Privilege Escalation (LPE) vulnerability has been discovered in pam-config within Linux Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM). This flaw allows an unprivileged local attacker (for example, a user logged in via SSH) to obtain the elevated privileges normally reserved for a physically present, "allow_active" user. The highest risk is that the attacker can then perform all allow_active yes Polkit actions, which are typically restricted to console users, potentially gaining unauthorized control over system configurations, services, or other sensitive operations.
References
- access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-6018 (opens in a new tab)
- bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2372693 (opens in a new tab)
- bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1243226 (opens in a new tab)
- cdn2.qualys.com/2025/06/17/suse15-pam-udisks-lpe.txt (opens in a new tab)
- openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/08/28/4 (opens in a new tab)