CVE-2007-3149
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedsudo, when linked with MIT Kerberos 5 (krb5), does not properly check whether a user can currently authenticate to Kerberos, which allows local users to gain privileges, in a manner unintended by the sudo security model, via certain KRB5_ environment variable settings. NOTE: another researcher disputes this vulnerability, stating that the attacker must be "a user, who can already log into your system, and can already use sudo."
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceWhen sudo is linked with MIT Kerberos 5, it fails to properly validate the user's current Kerberos authentication state when processing KRB5_ environment variables. This allows a local user who already has sudo access to manipulate these variables to bypass the intended sudo security checks and gain elevated privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versions= 1.6.8_p12CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check installed sudo versionRun 'sudo -V' or 'rpm -q sudo' / 'dpkg -l sudo' to get the sudo version numberAffected if The version is exactly 1.6.8_p12
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Verify sudo is linked with MIT Kerberos 5Run 'ldd $(which sudo) | grep -i krb' or 'ldconfig -p | grep -i krb5' to check if sudo has a runtime dependency on Kerberos librariesAffected if Kerberos libraries (libkrb5) appear in the linked libraries output
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Confirm KRB5_ environment variables are not strippedCheck /etc/sudoers for the env_reset option. Run 'sudo -V' and look for 'env_reset' in the environment section. Also check if 'env_keep' includes KRB5_ variables with 'sudo grep -i krb5 /etc/sudoers'Affected if env_reset is not present, or KRB5_ variables are explicitly allowed via env_keep, or no such controls exist
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Verify user has existing sudo privilegesRun 'sudo -l' as the target user to list their sudo permissionsAffected if The user already has sudo access configured in /etc/sudoers (the attack requires an existing sudo user to manipulate KRB5_ vars)
You are affected if sudo version 1.6.8_p12 is installed AND it is linked against MIT Kerberos 5 AND KRB5_ environment variables are not stripped by sudoers configuration, allowing an existing sudo user to potentially bypass authentication checks.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate sudo to a version that properly validates Kerberos authentication state or configure sudo to strip KRB5_ environment variables via the env_reset option in /etc/sudoers. If Kerberos authentication via sudo is not required, rebuild sudo without MIT Kerberos 5 linkage.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2007-3149 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2007-3149 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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