CVE-2025-46802
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 · uneditedFor a short time they PTY is set to mode 666, allowing any user on the system to connect to the screen session.
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 confidenceThis vulnerability involves GNU screen setting PTY (pseudo-terminal) devices to mode 666 (world-readable/writable) temporarily during session initialization. During this brief window, any local user can connect to the screen session, potentially viewing sensitive information or interacting with the session as the owning user.
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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
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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Verify GNU screen is installedRun 'which screen' or 'screen --version' to confirm screen is present on the systemAffected if screen is installed and the installed version is older than the fixed version
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Identify installed screen versionExecute 'screen --version' or check your package manager (dpkg -l | grep screen, rpm -qa | grep screen) to determine the exact version numberAffected if the version cannot be determined or is older than the patched version that addresses CVE-2025-46802
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Determine if multi-user environment existsCheck for multiple local users with 'ls -la /home' or 'getent passwd' to see if non-root users exist on the systemAffected if multiple local users exist and share access to the same system where screen runs
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Check for active screen sessionsRun 'screen -ls' to list all running screen sessions and identify which user owns each sessionAffected if active screen sessions exist owned by users other than yourself in a multi-user environment
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Inspect PTY device permissions during screen useWhen screen is running, check PTY permissions with 'ls -la /dev/pts/*' - the vulnerability manifests as mode 666 (rw-rw-rw-) on PTY devices during initializationAffected if PTY devices under /dev/pts show world-readable/writable permissions (666) when screen sessions are active
A system is affected if GNU screen is installed with a vulnerable version (pre-patch) and runs in an environment with multiple local users who could exploit the temporary 666 PTY permissions during session initialization.
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 dataApply the latest security patch for GNU screen which should fix the PTY permission handling. Alternatively, avoid using screen in multi-user environments or ensure proper user isolation until the patch is applied.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-46802 — 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-2025-46802 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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