CVE-2026-85649: High severity Holloway Actualizer vulnerability
(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.
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
Upgrade
Actualizerto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in v1.2.1
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Under what conditions can an affected image be created?
The issue is triggered when the installer’s mkpasswd invocation fails to generate a yescrypt hash, such as when mkpasswd is incompatible or yescrypt support is unavailable. The installer does not check for that failure and continues the build with an empty password-hash variable.
Which accounts may be created with empty password fields?
The affected password-validation loops are for the root account and the Alpha user account. A failed yescrypt hash generation can therefore leave either or both accounts with empty password fields in the resulting image.
Does an empty password field always permit login without a password?
No. Whether passwordless authentication is possible depends on the authentication configuration of the resulting image. The vulnerability creates the empty password fields; the authentication policy determines whether they can be used to authenticate.
How can I determine whether a built image is affected?
Check whether the image was built in an environment where mkpasswd could not produce yescrypt hashes, including incompatible mkpasswd implementations or environments without yescrypt support. Inspect the root and Alpha account password fields for empty values.
What change addresses the installer behavior?
Use the fixed release referenced as v1.2.1, which follows the affected versions described as v1.2.0 and earlier. If rebuilding is necessary, ensure mkpasswd supports yescrypt and that hash-generation failures stop the build rather than being accepted.