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CVE-2026-85649

7.9 HighPublic exploit

(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 profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
High
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

Exploit likelihood

0.20%Unchanged since Sep 5, 2026
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 7.9

(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.

Record
CVE-2026-85649
CVSS 3.1
7.9 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Weakness
CWE-636, CWE-252
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2026-71096 7.9

(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.

Record
EUVD-2026-71096
CVSS 3.1
7.9 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 7.9

(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.

Record
CVE-2026-85649
CVSS 3.1
7.9 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Weakness
CWE-252, CWE-636
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 7.9

(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.

Record
CVE-2026-85649
CVSS 3.1
7.9 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Weakness
CWE-252, CWE-636
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Public exploits

Links only. Every CVE stores no exploit code.

Public exploits
SourceLinkDate
PoC in GitHubChewKeanHo/research-cve-2026-856492026-09-04

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
first indexedCVE List, EUVD, NVD, OSV, PoC in GitHub

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2026-85649 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.9) in Chewkeanho Software-actualizer, published September 4, 2026. Public exploit code exists. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.20%, the 10th percentile. No source names a fixed version.

References

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