(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.

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Fixes

Solution

Upgrade to Actualizer v1.2.1 or later. The fixed version validates that the generated password hash has the expected yescrypt prefix and performs a pre-flight check for yescrypt support before building.


Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

History

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 15:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Chewkeanho
Chewkeanho software-actualizer
Vendors & Products Chewkeanho
Chewkeanho software-actualizer

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 15:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Title Fail‑Open Password Validation in Actualizer Installer Leading to Passwordless Authentication

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 13:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description (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.
Weaknesses CWE-252
CWE-636
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N'}


Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: CIRCL

Published:

Updated: 2026-09-04T12:59:59.743Z

Reserved: 2026-09-04T12:58:10.268Z

Link: CVE-2026-85649

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-09-04T13:20:11.760

Modified: 2026-09-04T13:20:11.760

Link: CVE-2026-85649

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-09-04T15:19:50Z

Weaknesses