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Two newly discovered Linux vulnerabilities allow attackers to gain root access on major Linux distros, including Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, and SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 systems. Both bugs are local privilege escalation (LPE) vulnerabilities.
The two flaws are as follows:
- CVE-2025-6018: Found in the configuration of Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) framework on openSUSE Leap 15 and SUSE Linux Enterprise 15. If exploited, it allows local attackers to gain “allow_active” user privileges.
- CVE-2025-6019: Found in the libblockdev library and allows a local attacker to gain root privileges by exploiting the udisks daemon, a storage management service that runs on most modern Linux distros.
Both flaws were discovered and reported by security researchers from Qualys Threat Research Unit (TRU). Their report also highlights proof-of-concept exploits that successfully target CVE-2025-6019 to gain root privileges on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE Leap 15 systems.
Thankfully, security patches addressing the bugs have already been released. Since root access allows persistence, lateral network movement, and enables agent tampering, administrators are advised to treat the vulnerabilities as a “critical, universal risk and deploy patches without delay.” Exploitation of even a single unpatched server can endanger an entire network.
While Linux is comparatively more secure than more popular operating systems like Windows, it’s still vulnerable to odd bugs discovered every now and then. A set of novel vulnerabilities also discovered by TRU allows a local attacker to gain access to otherwise protected information and steal password hashes on Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise, and Fedora Linux systems.
Another novel Linux malware allowed for the development of the first ever UEFI bootkit, also targeted Linux systems. It focused on compromising Linux environments, bypassing key security measures such as Secure Boot and kernel signatures.
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