CVE-2025-6018

HIGHPre-NVD 7.87.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2025-07-23. a secondary CVSS source baseline 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, secondary
Elevated
7.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 1%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: Elevated riskExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

A Local Privilege Escalation (LPE) vulnerability has been discovered in pam-config within Linux Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM). This flaw allows an unprivileged local attacker (for example, a user logged in via SSH) to obtain the elevated privileges normally reserved for a physically present, "allow_active" user. The highest risk is that the attacker can then perform all allow_active yes Polkit actions, which are typically restricted to console users, potentially gaining unauthorized control over system configurations, services, or other sensitive operations.

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
7.8(medium)
EG Risk
51(Track*)
EG Risk 51/100SSVC: Track*

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity78% × 45%
Exploitation40% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Watch closely — could escalate to Attend.
EPSS PROB
1%
EPSS %ILE
59%
KEV
Not listed

Published

July 23, 2025

Last Modified

June 30, 2026

Advisory Details (5)

Auto-updated Jun 25, 2026
🔬 Proof of concept available. Patch available. Sources: redhat.
generic🟡 PoC Available
https://cdn2.qualys.com/2025/06/17/suse15-pam-udisks-lpe.txt
generic

oss-security - Re: CVE-2025-8067 - UDisks

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/08/28/4
generic🟡 PoC Available

1243226 – (CVE-2025-6018) VUL-0: CVE-2025-6018: pam: LPE from unprivileged to allow_active in *SUSE 15's PAM

https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1243226
redhat

2372693 – (CVE-2025-6018) CVE-2025-6018 pam-config: LPE from unprivileged to allow_active in PAM

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2372693
redhat Patch Available

cve-details

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-6018

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 42× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-07-30 01:30 UTCEPSS rescore
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  10. 2026-07-23 03:00 UTCEG score recompute
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  68. 2026-05-30 01:28 UTCEG score recompute
  69. 2026-05-30 01:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
  70. 2026-05-29 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
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Publicly available exploits

(8 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (7 GitHub PoCs) (1 Exploit-DB entry). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCDesertDemons/CVE-2025-6018-6019
    First seen Feb 12, 2026

    CVE-2025-6018 CVE-2025-6019 PoC Exploit - Local Privilege Escalation in openSUSE/SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 - PAM bypass + udisks2 XFS race condition LPE to root

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCGoultarde/CVE-2025-6018_CVE-2025-6019_autopwn
    First seen Feb 10, 2026

    Auto exploit for CVE-2025-6018 & CVE-2025-6019 based on https://github.com/0rionCollector/Exploit-Chain-CVE-2025-6018-6019

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCMichaelVenturella/CVE-2025-6018-6019-PoC
    First seen Feb 9, 2026

    A Proof of Concept for chaining CVE-2025-6018 (PAM/Polkit Active Session Bypass) and CVE-2025-6019 (libblockdev SUID Mount Flaw) to achieve Local Privilege Escalation (LPE) on vulnerable Linux systems.

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCmuyuanlove/CVE-2025-6018-CVE-2025-6019-Privilege-Escalation-Exploit
    First seen Feb 9, 2026

    CVE-2025-6018 + CVE-2025-6019 Privilege Escalation Exploit

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoC0rionCollector/Exploit-Chain-CVE-2025-6018-6019
    First seen Feb 9, 2026

    Exploit Chain of CVE-2025-6018 to CVE-2025-6019

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-52386
    First seen Jul 28, 2025

    Linux PAM Environment - Variable Injection Local Privilege Escalation

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCibrahmsql/CVE-2025-6018
    First seen Jul 24, 2025

    CVE-2025-6018 Poc and Exploit

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCdreysanox/CVE-2025-6018_Poc
    First seen Jul 3, 2025

    Exploit for CVE-2025-6019

    Open source ↗

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2025-6018?
CVE-2025-6018 is a high vulnerability published on July 23, 2025. A Local Privilege Escalation (LPE) vulnerability has been discovered in pam-config within Linux Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM). This flaw allows an unprivileged local attacker (for example, a user logged in via SSH) to obtain the elevated privileges normally reserved for a physically…
When was CVE-2025-6018 disclosed?
CVE-2025-6018 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on July 23, 2025, with the most recent update on June 30, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2025-6018 actively exploited?
CVE-2025-6018 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 40.9% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2025-6018?
CVE-2025-6018 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2025-6018?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2025-6018, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

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