CVE-2025-6020VulnerabilityPublished 24 Jun 2025Updated 12 Oct 2026

Red Hat Security Advisory: pam security update

Affects Red Hat pamSource GCVE Database

Authoritative record:CVE-2025-6020· High 7.8

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High : upgrade Red Hat linux-pam to 1.7.1 soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 09:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.8High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 40% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 1.7.1

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 17 Jun 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
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

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 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade linux-pam to 1.7.1.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
linux-pam	Affected <1.7.1	Fixed in 1.7.1
GitHublinux-pam`pkg:github/linux-pam`Other threats	Affected <1.7.1	Fixed in 1.7.1

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

Red Hat has released official security updates that fix this vulnerability. Users should apply the provided patches for their respective Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions as detailed in the Red Hat advisories RHSA-2025:10024 and RHSA-2025:10027. For detailed update instructions, refer to https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258. No additional mitigation actions are indicated by the vendor beyond applying these updates.

Description

Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) provide a system to set up authentication policies without the need to recompile programs to handle authentication. Security Fix(es): * linux-pam: Linux-pam directory Traversal (CVE-2025-6020) For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Impact

The vulnerability could allow unauthorized directory traversal, potentially exposing sensitive files or system information. This could lead to unauthorized access or privilege escalation depending on the system configuration and usage of PAM. However, there are no known exploits in the wild currently reported.

Summary

CVE-2025-6020 is a directory traversal vulnerability in the linux-pam component, which is responsible for managing authentication policies on Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems. This flaw could potentially allow an attacker to access files or directories outside the intended directory structure, violating system security policies. Red Hat has issued security advisories and patches for affected versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and 9, including Extended Update Support and Extended Life Cycle releases. The vulnerability is tracked under CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory).

CWE-22Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #6OWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.
Implementation · Input Validation
Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
Architecture and Design
For any security checks that are performed on the client side, ensure that these checks are duplicated on the server side, in order to avoid CWE-602. Attackers can bypass the client-side checks by modifying values after the checks have been performed, or by changing the client to remove the client-side checks…
Implementation · Input Validation
Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174).
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Path Traversal (opens in a new tab)
Using Slashes and URL Encoding Combined to Bypass Validation Logic (opens in a new tab)
Manipulating Web Input to File System Calls (opens in a new tab)
Using Escaped Slashes in Alternate Encoding (opens in a new tab)
Using Slashes in Alternate Encoding (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 10 Aug 2026, 21:05 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-22

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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