{"cve":"CVE-2026-48981","nvd":{"published":"2026-06-18T20:16:14.407","modified":"2026-10-26T11:10:00.157","status":"Deferred","description":"pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. In versions prior to 0.9.2, pam_usb calls xmlReadFile() with flags=0 when loading the configuration file, allowing libxml2 to process external entity references (XXE), potentially making outbound network connections or local file reads at XML parse time from the context of the authenticating process. The vulnerability requires the configuration file to contain crafted XML entity references. Since pam_usb.conf is root-owned, direct exploitation requires prior write access to the config, but the defence-in-depth impact is significant given that pam_usb.so runs in setuid contexts (sudo, su). This issue has been fixed in version 0.9.2.","cvss_v4":null,"cvss_v3":{"version":"3.1","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:L","score":6.7},"cwes":["CWE-611"],"references":["https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/releases/tag/0.9.2","https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/security/advisories/GHSA-96vv-r4wc-28c2"],"products":[],"source":"nvd","synced_at":"2026-10-26T11:33:08.859761529+00:00"},"epss":{"cve":"CVE-2026-48981","score":0.00154,"percentile":0.04508,"date":"2026-10-25"},"kev":null,"osv":[],"attribution":["This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.","EPSS scores: FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System, https://www.first.org/epss","Known exploited vulnerabilities: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","Package advisories: OSV (https://osv.dev), from the GitHub Advisory Database, PyPA, Go, RustSec and other ecosystem databases, under CC-BY 4.0 or CC0","CVE records: the CVE Program's CVE List (https://www.cve.org), under its terms of use (https://www.cve.org/Legal/TermsOfUse). CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation; this product is not affiliated with the CVE Program."]}