CVE-2008-5103

Severity: high (CVSS 7.2 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2008-11-17 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-255

Description

The (1) python-vm-builder and (2) ubuntu-vm-builder implementations in VMBuilder 0.9 in Ubuntu 8.10 omit the -e option when invoking chpasswd with a root:! argument, which configures the root account with a cleartext password of ! (exclamation point) and allows attackers to bypass intended login restrictions.

Affected products

Dcgrendel Vmbuilder: 0.9

References

http://launchpadlibrarian.net/19619929/vm-builder_0.9-0ubuntu3.1.debdiff
http://osvdb.org/49996
http://secunia.com/advisories/32697
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/32292
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-670-1
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vm-builder/+bug/296841
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/46603
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/19619929/vm-builder_0.9-0ubuntu3.1.debdiff
http://osvdb.org/49996
http://secunia.com/advisories/32697
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/32292
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-670-1

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