CVE-2023-40146

CriticalCVSS 9.8/10Last modified Jun 17, 2026

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.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1 9.8/10CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weakness enumeration

CWE-77 CWE-798

Affected software

Vendor	Product	Versions
Peplink	Smart Reader	v1.2.0 (in QEMU)
peplink	smart_reader	v1.2.0

References

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-2023-40146/47256Vendor Advisory
https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2023-1868Exploit, Third Party Advisory
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-2023-40146/47256Vendor Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240822-0008/Third Party Advisory
https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2023-1868Exploit, Third Party Advisory
https://www.talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2023-1868

Timeline

Published: Apr 17, 2024
Last modified: Jun 17, 2026
NVD status: Modified

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