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Uncontrolled Search Path (DLL Hijack)Weakness · CWE-427

CVE-2025-40763

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-11-11
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

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 · unedited
A vulnerability has been identified in Altair Grid Engine (All versions < V2026.0.0). Affected products do not properly validate environment variables when loading shared libraries, allowing path hijacking through malicious library substitution. This could allow a local attacker to execute arbitrary code with superuser privileges by manipulating the environment variable and placing a malicious library in the controlled path.

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 · high confidence

Altair Grid Engine versions prior to V2026.0.0 fail to properly validate environment variables during shared library loading, enabling path hijacking where a local attacker manipulates an environment variable (e.g., LD_LIBRARY_PATH) to point to a directory containing a malicious library, causing arbitrary code execution with superuser privileges.

MitigationUpgrade to Altair Grid Engine V2026.0.0 or later. As immediate compensating controls, restrict filesystem permissions on library directories, limit write access to prevent attacker-controlled library placement, and monitor for unauthorized environment variable modifications.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS 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
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check if Altair Grid Engine is installed
    Look for Altair Grid Engine binaries and installation directories, commonly in /opt/altair or /opt/sge, and check for processes named 'sge' or 'gridengine'
    Affected if Altair Grid Engine software is found on the system
  2. Determine the installed version
    Run 'sge_version' or check version files in the installation directory, such as INSTALLDIR/version or the output of 'qstat -version'
    Affected if Version is lower than V2026.0.0 or the version cannot be determined (treated as vulnerable)
  3. Verify the service runs with elevated privileges
    Check the user owner of sge_execd, sge_qmaster processes or the init script using commands like 'ps aux | grep sge' or 'id <sge_user>'
    Affected if The Grid Engine processes run as root or a privileged user account
  4. Inspect library-related environment variables
    Review configuration files and startup scripts for LD_LIBRARY_PATH, LD_PRELOAD, or similar variables, and check if they can be modified by non-privileged users
    Affected if Environment variables controlling library paths are set and accessible to unprivileged users who could modify them
  5. Check permissions on library directories
    Examine filesystem permissions on the Grid Engine lib directories and any directories referenced in library path variables using 'ls -la'
    Affected if Non-privileged users have write access to directories in the library search path

The system is affected if Altair Grid Engine is installed with a version prior to V2026.0.0 and runs with superuser privileges while allowing unprivileged users to influence library loading paths.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade to Altair Grid Engine V2026.0.0 or later. As immediate compensating controls, restrict filesystem permissions on library directories, limit write access to prevent attacker-controlled library placement, and monitor for unauthorized environment variable modifications.

Recommended fix High confidence

Altair Grid Engine V2026.0.0 or later

  1. Backup current Altair Grid Engine configuration and data directories
  2. Stop the Altair Grid Engine service/scheduler
  3. Download Altair Grid Engine version V2026.0.0 or later from the official vendor portal
  4. Install the upgraded version following vendor documentation
  5. Verify the installation completed successfully
  6. Start the Altair Grid Engine service
  7. Confirm the environment variable validation is working correctly by reviewing release notes or running integrity checks
Caveat Review release notes for any configuration or feature changes between current version and V2026.0.0 before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,160
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-40763 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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