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CVE-2019-19726 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in OpenBSD's dynamic loader (ld.so) affecting versions 6.6 and earlier. The flaw arises because setuid-root programs such as chpass and passwd do not properly clear the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable when a very small RLIMIT_DATA resource limit is set. If ld.so fails to allocate memory while attempting to strip LD_LIBRARY_PATH, it silently fails, allowing the variable to persist. This enables a local attacker to load a malicious shared library as root, resulting in full root privilege escalation. The vulnerability is present in default OpenBSD installations and can be exploited without special privileges, requiring only local access and a writable directory.
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1 valid exploit after Mallory filtered fakes, detection scripts, and README-only repos (1 hidden).
This repository contains a single Metasploit module that exploits a local privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2019-19726) in OpenBSD's dynamic loader (ld.so) when used with the set-uid 'chpass' binary. The exploit abuses improper handling of the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, allowing an attacker to load a malicious shared library as root. The module is weaponized, supporting customizable payloads (default: reverse shell) and automates the process of compiling and deploying the exploit and payload. The main file is written in Ruby (Metasploit module), but it generates and compiles C code for the malicious library and exploit binary, and drops a shell script as the payload. The exploit requires local access to a vulnerable OpenBSD system, a writable directory (default: /tmp), and the presence of the 'cc' compiler. The module cleans up after itself by removing dropped files. No network endpoints are hardcoded; all actions are performed locally on the target system.
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