Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2019-20044

In Zsh before 5.8, attackers able to execute commands can regain privileges dropped by the --no-PRIVILEGED option. Zsh fails to overwrite the saved uid, so the original privileges can be restored by executing MODULE_PATH=/dir/with/module zmodload with a module that calls setuid().

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 10 products from zsh, from apple, from linux and 7 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2020, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.

Published

2020-02-24T14:15:11.667

Last Modified

2024-11-21T04:37:56.997

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 7.8 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Access Vector: LOCAL
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: COMPLETE
Integrity Impact: COMPLETE
Availability Impact: COMPLETE

Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

10.0

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-273

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	zsh	zsh	< 5.8	Yes
Operating System	apple	macos	-	No
Operating System	linux	linux_kernel	-	No
Operating System	fedoraproject	fedora	30	Yes
Operating System	fedoraproject	fedora	31	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	8.0	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	9.0	Yes
Operating System	apple	ipados	< 13.5	Yes
Operating System	apple	iphone_os	< 13.5	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	< 10.15.5	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	< 10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	< 10.14.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	< 10.15.5	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.13.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.14.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.14.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.14.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.14.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.14.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.14.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.14.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.14.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	mac_os_x	10.14.6	Yes
Operating System	apple	tvos	< 13.4.5	Yes
Operating System	apple	watchos	< 6.2.5	Yes

References

http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/May/49 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/May/53 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/May/55 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/May/59 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://zsh.sourceforge.net/releases.html Release Notes, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://github.com/XMB5/zsh-privileged-upgrade Broken Link ([email protected])
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/03/msg00004.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/12/msg00000.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/FP64FFIZI2CKQOEAOI5A72PVQULE7ZZC/ ([email protected])
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PN5V7MPHRRP7QNHOEK56S7QGRU53WUN6/ ([email protected])
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-55 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://support.apple.com/HT211168 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://support.apple.com/HT211170 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://support.apple.com/HT211171 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://support.apple.com/HT211175 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211168 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211170 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211171 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211175 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://www.zsh.org/mla/zsh-announce/141 Release Notes, Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/May/49 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/May/53 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/May/55 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/May/59 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://zsh.sourceforge.net/releases.html Release Notes, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/XMB5/zsh-privileged-upgrade Broken Link (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/03/msg00004.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/12/msg00000.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/FP64FFIZI2CKQOEAOI5A72PVQULE7ZZC/ (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PN5V7MPHRRP7QNHOEK56S7QGRU53WUN6/ (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-55 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://support.apple.com/HT211168 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://support.apple.com/HT211170 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://support.apple.com/HT211171 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://support.apple.com/HT211175 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211168 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211170 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211171 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211175 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.zsh.org/mla/zsh-announce/141 Release Notes, Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For zsh's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.