CVE-2026-85649

HIGH CVSS 3.1: 7.9 EPSS 0.21%
Updated Sep 08, 2026
Debian
Parameter Value
CVSS 7.9 (HIGH)
Type CWE-636, CWE-252
Vendor Debian
Public PoC No

(Holloway) Chew, Kean Ho's Actualizer v1.2.0 and earlier contains a fail-open password validation vulnerability in the Alpha user and root user password loops of Shell/debian-minbase-install.sh. The installer invokes mkpasswd to generate yescrypt password hashes but does not check the command's return value and unconditionally accepts the result. If mkpasswd fails to generate a yescrypt hash, for example because an incompatible mkpasswd implementation or an environment without yescrypt support is used, the resulting password hash variable can be empty and the build proceeds.

The resulting image can therefore contain empty password fields for the root and alpha accounts, potentially permitting passwordless authentication depending on the authentication configuration.

Attack Parameters

Attack Vector
Local
Requires local access
Attack Complexity
Low
Easy to exploit
Privileges Required
High
Admin privileges needed
User Interaction
None
No user interaction needed

Impact Assessment

Confidentiality
High
Complete data leak
Integrity
High
Complete data modification
Availability
None
No disruption

CVSS Vector v3.1

Weakness Type (CWE)