CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-36394 — Pam Setquota Project Pam Setquota security vulnerability

High CVSS 7

pam_setquota.c in the pam_setquota module before 2020-05-29 for Linux-PAM allows local attackers to set their quota on an arbitrary filesystem, in certain situations where the attacker's home directory is a FUSE filesystem mounted under /home.

Severity
High
CVSS
7 (3.1)
Published
2021-06-22
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application

Affected products

  • pam_setquota_project / pam_setquota

Matched remediation archetype

Path traversal, unsafe upload, and file handling

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted filenames, archive entries, URLs, and path segments into read, write, include, extraction, and upload operations.
  • Identify filesystem roots, mount permissions, symbolic-link behavior, archive handling, and whether uploaded content is web-accessible or executable.
  • Review canonicalization and containment checks across supported operating systems and storage backends.

Remediate safely

  • Generate server-side storage identifiers and resolve paths beneath a fixed root using filesystem-aware containment checks.
  • Reject absolute, parent-relative, alternate-separator, device, link, and archive entries that escape the intended root.
  • Store uploads outside executable or served paths, validate type and size, and use private atomic temporary files.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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