Predictive Vulnerability Intelligence.

Product

  • Product
  • Pricing
  • Documentation

Company

  • About
  • Partnerships
  • Blog
  • Support

Legal

  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Data Licensing

© 2026 FAUCET Technologies LLC. All rights reserved.

CVE-2023-22809

75
FAUCET Score

CVE-2023-22809 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in Sudo versions 1.8.0 through 1.9.12p1, affecting products like Apple, Debian, and Fedora. It allows a local attacker to append arbitrary files to the sudoedit process by manipulating environment variables, bypassing protection mechanisms. With a CVSS score of 7.8 (High), this flaw is easily exploitable with low attack complexity and no user interaction, leading to full confidentiality, integrity, and availability compromise. While not on CISA's KEV catalog, public exploit code exists in Metasploit and ExploitDB, and it has garnered significant community discussion and media coverage, indicating active awareness and potential for exploitation.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
>= 1.8.0, < 1.9.12CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:sudo_project:sudo:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
1.9.12CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:sudo_project:sudo:1.9.12:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
1.9.12CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:sudo_project:sudo:1.9.12:p1:*:*:*:*:*:*
10.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
11.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

7.8HIGH

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

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
1.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
55.37%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
98.9%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-23
Model: v2026.06.15
Metasploit: Sudoedit Extra Arguments Priv Esc · Jan 18, 2023
ExploitDB: EDB-51217 · Apr 3, 2023
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.5537 is in the 100th percentile among its peer group of 16,974 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.2 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (22)

githubpatch availablevia llm_extracted
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: cbl2 sudo 1.9.12p2-1 on CBL Mariner 2.0Fixed in: 1.9.12p2-1
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: cm1 sudo 1.9.12p2-1 on CBL Mariner 1.0Fixed in: 1.9.12p2-1
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: 18003-16820Fixed in: 1.9.12p2-1
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: 18004-16823Fixed in: 1.9.12p2-1
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 Advanced Update Support(Disable again in 2026 - SPRHEL-7118)Fixed in: sudo-0:1.8.23-3.el7_6.3
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7 Advanced Update SupportFixed in: sudo-0:1.8.23-4.el7_7.4
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7 Telco Extended Update SupportFixed in: sudo-0:1.8.23-4.el7_7.4
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7 Update Services for SAP SolutionsFixed in: sudo-0:1.8.23-4.el7_7.4
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8Fixed in: sudo-0:1.8.29-8.el8_7.1
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 Update Services for SAP SolutionsFixed in: sudo-0:1.8.25p1-8.el8_1.3
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Advanced Update SupportFixed in: sudo-0:1.8.29-5.el8_2.2
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Telecommunications Update ServiceFixed in: sudo-0:1.8.29-5.el8_2.2
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Update Services for SAP SolutionsFixed in: sudo-0:1.8.29-5.el8_2.2
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Extended Update SupportFixed in: sudo-0:1.8.29-7.el8_4.2
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update SupportFixed in: sudo-0:1.8.29-8.el8_6.1
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9Fixed in: sudo-0:1.9.5p2-7.el9_1.1
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Extended Update SupportFixed in: sudo-0:1.9.5p2-7.el9_0.2
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Virtualization 4 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8Fixed in: redhat-virtualization-host-0:4.5.3-202302150956_8.6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Extended Lifecycle SupportFixed in: sudo-0:1.8.6p3-29.el6_10.7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: sudo-0:1.8.23-10.el7_9.3
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 Advanced Update SupportFixed in: sudo-0:1.8.19p2-12.el7_4.3
View patch

Vendor Advisories (3)

githubllm-github-3eb4e9e20390e282MEDIUM

AS-2023-001: Sudo

Feb 20, 2023
redhatCVE-2023-22809Important

sudo: arbitrary file write with privileges of the RunAs user

Jan 18, 2023
microsoft2023-Jan/CVE-2023-22809Important

In Sudo before 1.9.12p2, the sudoedit (aka -e) feature mishandles extra arguments passed in the user-provided environment variables (SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL, and EDITOR), allowing a local attacker to append arbitrary entries to the list of files to process. This can lead to privilege escalation. Affected versions are 1.8.0 through 1.9.12.p1. The problem exists because a user-specified editor may contain a "--" argument that defeats a protection mechanism, e.g., an EDITOR='vim -- /path/to/extra/file' value.

Jan 10, 2023

References

packetstormsecurity.com / files/171644/sudo-1.9.12p1-Privilege-Escalation.html
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
packetstormsecurity.com / files/172509/Sudoedit-Extra-Arguments-Privilege-Escalation.html
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
packetstormsecurity.com / files/174234/Cisco-ThousandEyes-Enterprise-Agent-Virtual-Appliance-Arbitrary-File-Modification.html
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
seclists.org / fulldisclosure/2023/Aug/21
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
lists.debian.org / debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00012.html
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
lists.fedoraproject.org / archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2QDGFCGAV5QRJCE6IXRXIS4XJHS57DDH
Mailing List
lists.fedoraproject.org / archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/G4YNBTTKTRT2ME3NTSXAPTOKYUE47XHZ
Mailing List
security.gentoo.org / glsa/202305-12
Third Party Advisory
security.netapp.com / advisory/ntap-20230127-0015
Third Party Advisory
support.apple.com / kb/HT213758
Third Party Advisory
debian.org / security/2023/dsa-5321
Third Party Advisory
sudo.ws / security/advisories/sudoedit_any
ExploitMitigationVendor Advisory
synacktiv.com / sites/default/files/2023-01/sudo-CVE-2023-22809.pdf
ExploitMitigationTechnical DescriptionThird Party Advisory
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2023/01/19/1
ExploitMailing ListThird Party Advisory