A flaw was found in the util-linux chfn and chsh utilities when compiled with Readline support. The Readline library uses an "INPUTRC"…

Description

A flaw was found in the util-linux chfn and chsh utilities when compiled with Readline support. The Readline library uses an "INPUTRC" environment variable to get a path to the library config file. When the library cannot parse the specified file, it prints an error message containing data from the file. This flaw allows an unprivileged user to read root-owned files, potentially leading to privilege escalation. This flaw affects util-linux versions prior to 2.37.4.

Scores

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)

0.43% · top 63% of all CVEs (6 Nov 2026)

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.5.

Weakness

• CWE-209 (opens in a new tab)All about CWE-209 and its CVEs

Affected products

• util-linux

  • affected util-linux 2.37.4

References (4)

• https://lore.kernel.org/util-linux/20220214110609.msiwlm457ngoic6w%40ws.net.home/T/#u (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20220331-0002/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
• GLSA-202401-08 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_transferred
• https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-398330.html (opens in a new tab)

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

• CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
• CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
• NVD (opens in a new tab)
• FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
• OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
• GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
• CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2022-0563](https://trackcve.app/badge/CVE-2022-0563.svg)](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2022-0563)

Record last updated 14 Oct 2026, 12:12 UTC.