pam_usb: strtok() race condition in multi-threaded PAM hosts can corrupt deny_remote result

Summary

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. Prior to 0.9.0, pam_usb is a PAM module loaded into the host process (sudo, login, GDM, GNOME Shell). Display managers such as GDM run multiple concurrent authentication threads. Three functions used by the deny_remote feature called the non-reentrant strtok(), which stores state in a single global pointer. If two authentications race, one thread's strtok() call can overwrite the other's in-progress tokenisation pointer, causing incorrect parsing of the tmux session data or the /proc environ scan that backs the remote-session detection logic. Additionally, pusb_tmux_get_client_tty() passed the raw pointer returned by getenv(TMUX) directly to strtok(). getenv() returns a pointer into the live process environment block; strtok() inserts NUL bytes into that block, permanently corrupting the TMUX variable for subsequent code running in the same process. In long-lived display managers this affects all future authentications in that process. The combined effect can cause deny_remote=true to return an incorrect decision for a remote session, or an incorrect decision for a local session, depending on thread interleaving. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.9.0.

Timeline

1. May 27, 2026, 8:10 PM UTCCVE published
2. May 28, 2026, 1:25 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

3. May 28, 2026, 1:25 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• mcdope pam_usb

  fixed in 0.9.0

References 3