CVE-2023-40146

Published: Apr 17, 2024

Modified: Nov 4, 2025

PUBLISHED

CVSS v3.1

6.8

MEDIUM

Description

A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the /bin/login functionality of Peplink Smart Reader v1.2.0 (in QEMU). A specially crafted command line argument can lead to a limited-shell escape and elevated capabilities. An attacker can authenticate with hard-coded credentials and execute unblocked default busybox functionality to trigger this vulnerability.

Vendor	Product	Versions
Peplink	Smart Reader	affected `v1.2.0 (in QEMU)`

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-77

CVSS v3.1 Details

CVSS v3.1 Vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector

Physical

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

References

https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2023-1868

https://forum.peplink.com/t/peplink-security-advisory-smart-reader-firmware-1-2-0-cve-2023-43491-cve-2023-45209-cve-2023-39367-cve-2023-45744-cve-2023-40146/47256

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CVE-2023-40146

Description

Affected Products

Weaknesses (CWE)

CVSS v3.1 Details

References