kcheckpass passes a user-supplied argument to the pam_start function, often within a setuid environment, which allows local users to invoke any configured PAM stack, and possibly trigger unintended side effects, via an arbitrary valid PAM service name, a different vulnerability than CVE-2011-4122. NOTE: the vendor indicates that the possibility of resultant privilege escalation may be "a bit far-fetched."

Directory traversal vulnerability in openpam_configure.c in OpenPAM before r478 on FreeBSD 8.1 allows local users to load arbitrary DSOs and gain privileges via a .. (dot dot) in the service_name argument to the pam_start function, as demonstrated by a .. in the -c option to kcheckpass.