SSH vulnerabilities

PuTTY through 0.75 proceeds with establishing an SSH session even if it has never sent a substantive authentication response. This makes it easier for an attacker-controlled SSH server to present a later spoofed authentication prompt (that the attacker can use to capture credential data, and use that data for purposes that are undesired by the client user).

PuTTY before 0.75 on Windows allows remote servers to cause a denial of service (Windows GUI hang) by telling the PuTTY window to change its title repeatedly at high speed, which results in many SetWindowTextA or SetWindowTextW calls. NOTE: the same attack methodology may affect some OS-level GUIs on Linux or other platforms for similar reasons.

scp in OpenSSH through 8.3p1 allows command injection in the scp.c toremote function, as demonstrated by backtick characters in the destination argument. NOTE: the vendor reportedly has stated that they intentionally omit validation of "anomalous argument transfers" because that could "stand a great chance of breaking existing workflows."

The client side in OpenSSH 5.7 through 8.4 has an Observable Discrepancy leading to an information leak in the algorithm negotiation. This allows man-in-the-middle attackers to target initial connection attempts (where no host key for the server has been cached by the client). NOTE: some reports state that 8.5 and 8.6 are also affected.

golang.org/x/crypto before v0.0.0-20200220183623-bac4c82f6975 for Go allows a panic during signature verification in the golang.org/x/crypto/ssh package. A client can attack an SSH server that accepts public keys. Also, a server can attack any SSH client.

An issue was discovered in OpenSSH 7.9. Due to the scp implementation being derived from 1983 rcp, the server chooses which files/directories are sent to the client. However, the scp client only performs cursory validation of the object name returned (only directory traversal attacks are prevented). A malicious scp server (or Man-in-The-Middle attacker) can overwrite arbitrary files in the scp client target directory. If recursive operation (-r) is performed, the server can manipulate subdirectories as well (for example, to overwrite the .ssh/authorized_keys file).

In OpenSSH 7.9, due to accepting and displaying arbitrary stderr output from the server, a malicious server (or Man-in-The-Middle attacker) can manipulate the client output, for example to use ANSI control codes to hide additional files being transferred.

In OpenSSH 7.9, scp.c in the scp client allows remote SSH servers to bypass intended access restrictions via the filename of . or an empty filename. The impact is modifying the permissions of the target directory on the client side.

Remotely observable behaviour in auth-gss2.c in OpenSSH through 7.8 could be used by remote attackers to detect existence of users on a target system when GSS2 is in use. NOTE: the discoverer states 'We understand that the OpenSSH developers do not want to treat such a username enumeration (or "oracle") as a vulnerability.'

OpenSSH through 7.7 is prone to a user enumeration vulnerability due to not delaying bailout for an invalid authenticating user until after the packet containing the request has been fully parsed, related to auth2-gss.c, auth2-hostbased.c, and auth2-pubkey.c.

A certain Red Hat modification to the ChrootDirectory feature in OpenSSH 4.8, as used in sshd in OpenSSH 4.3 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.4 and Fedora 11, allows local users to gain privileges via hard links to setuid programs that use configuration files within the chroot directory, related to requirements for directory ownership.

Error handling in the SSH protocol in (1) SSH Tectia Client and Server and Connector 4.0 through 4.4.11, 5.0 through 5.2.4, and 5.3 through 5.3.8; Client and Server and ConnectSecure 6.0 through 6.0.4; Server for Linux on IBM System z 6.0.4; Server for IBM z/OS 5.5.1 and earlier, 6.0.0, and 6.0.1; and Client 4.0-J through 4.3.3-J and 4.0-K through 4.3.10-K; and (2) OpenSSH 4.7p1 and possibly other versions, when using a block cipher algorithm in Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode, makes it easier for remote attackers to recover certain plaintext data from an arbitrary block of ciphertext in an SSH session via unknown vectors.

A certain Debian patch for OpenSSH before 4.3p2-9etch3 on etch; before 4.6p1-1 on sid and lenny; and on other distributions such as SUSE uses functions that are not async-signal-safe in the signal handler for login timeouts, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (connection slot exhaustion) via multiple login attempts. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incorrect fix for CVE-2006-5051.

Certain Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4 and 5 packages for OpenSSH, as signed in August 2008 using a legitimate Red Hat GPG key, contain an externally introduced modification (Trojan Horse) that allows the package authors to have an unknown impact. NOTE: since the malicious packages were not distributed from any official Red Hat sources, the scope of this issue is restricted to users who may have obtained these packages through unofficial distribution points. As of 20080827, no unofficial distributions of this software are known.

OpenSSH before 5.1 sets the SO_REUSEADDR socket option when the X11UseLocalhost configuration setting is disabled, which allows local users on some platforms to hijack the X11 forwarding port via a bind to a single IP address, as demonstrated on the HP-UX platform.

sshd in OpenSSH 4 on Debian GNU/Linux, and the 20070303 OpenSSH snapshot, allows remote authenticated users to obtain access to arbitrary SELinux roles by appending a :/ (colon slash) sequence, followed by the role name, to the username.

OpenSSH 4.4 up to versions before 4.9 allows remote authenticated users to bypass the sshd_config ForceCommand directive by modifying the .ssh/rc session file.

OpenSSH 4.3p2, and probably other versions, allows local users to hijack forwarded X connections by causing ssh to set DISPLAY to :10, even when another process is listening on the associated port, as demonstrated by opening TCP port 6010 (IPv4) and sniffing a cookie sent by Emacs.

Unspecified vulnerability in the linux_audit_record_event function in OpenSSH 4.3p2, as used on Fedora Core 6 and possibly other systems, allows remote attackers to write arbitrary characters to an audit log via a crafted username. NOTE: some of these details are obtained from third party information.

ssh in OpenSSH before 4.7 does not properly handle when an untrusted cookie cannot be created and uses a trusted X11 cookie instead, which allows attackers to violate intended policy and gain privileges by causing an X client to be treated as trusted.

Unspecified vulnerability in SSHield 1.6.1 with OpenSSH 3.0.2p1 on Cisco WebNS 8.20.0.1 on Cisco Content Services Switch (CSS) series 11000 devices allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (connection slot exhaustion and device crash) via a series of large packets designed to exploit the SSH CRC32 attack detection overflow (CVE-2001-0144), possibly a related issue to CVE-2002-1024.

OpenSSH, when using OPIE (One-Time Passwords in Everything) for PAM, allows remote attackers to determine the existence of certain user accounts, which displays a different response if the user account exists and is configured to use one-time passwords (OTP), a similar issue to CVE-2007-2243.

OpenSSH 4.6 and earlier, when ChallengeResponseAuthentication is enabled, allows remote attackers to determine the existence of user accounts by attempting to authenticate via S/KEY, which displays a different response if the user account exists, a similar issue to CVE-2001-1483.

Unspecified vulnerability in the sshd Privilege Separation Monitor in OpenSSH before 4.5 causes weaker verification that authentication has been successful, which might allow attackers to bypass authentication. NOTE: as of 20061108, it is believed that this issue is only exploitable by leveraging vulnerabilities in the unprivileged process, which are not known to exist.

OpenSSH portable 4.1 on SUSE Linux, and possibly other platforms and versions, and possibly under limited configurations, allows remote attackers to determine valid usernames via timing discrepancies in which responses take longer for valid usernames than invalid ones, as demonstrated by sshtime. NOTE: as of 20061014, it appears that this issue is dependent on the use of manually-set passwords that causes delays when processing /etc/shadow due to an increased number of rounds.

packet.c in ssh in OpenSSH allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) by sending an invalid protocol sequence with USERAUTH_SUCCESS before NEWKEYS, which causes newkeys[mode] to be NULL.

Unspecified vulnerability in portable OpenSSH before 4.4, when running on some platforms, allows remote attackers to determine the validity of usernames via unknown vectors involving a GSSAPI "authentication abort."

Signal handler race condition in OpenSSH before 4.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash), and possibly execute arbitrary code if GSSAPI authentication is enabled, via unspecified vectors that lead to a double-free.

sshd in OpenSSH before 4.4, when using the version 1 SSH protocol, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via an SSH packet that contains duplicate blocks, which is not properly handled by the CRC compensation attack detector.

OpenSSH on FreeBSD 5.3 and 5.4, when used with OpenPAM, does not properly handle when a forked child process terminates during PAM authentication, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (client connection refusal) by connecting multiple times to the SSH server, waiting for the password prompt, then disconnecting.

scp in OpenSSH 4.2p1 allows attackers to execute arbitrary commands via filenames that contain shell metacharacters or spaces, which are expanded twice.

sshd in OpenSSH before 4.2, when GSSAPIDelegateCredentials is enabled, allows GSSAPI credentials to be delegated to clients who log in using non-GSSAPI methods, which could cause those credentials to be exposed to untrusted users or hosts.

OpenSSH 4.0, and other versions before 4.2, does not properly handle dynamic port forwarding ("-D" option) when a listen address is not provided, which may cause OpenSSH to enable the GatewayPorts functionality.

SSH, as implemented in OpenSSH before 4.0 and possibly other implementations, stores hostnames, IP addresses, and keys in plaintext in the known_hosts file, which makes it easier for an attacker that has compromised an SSH user's account to generate a list of additional targets that are more likely to have the same password or key.

sshd in OpenSSH 3.5p1, when PermitRootLogin is disabled, immediately closes the TCP connection after a root login attempt with the correct password, but leaves the connection open after an attempt with an incorrect password, which makes it easier for remote attackers to guess the password by observing the connection state, a different vulnerability than CVE-2003-0190. NOTE: it could be argued that in most environments, this does not cross privilege boundaries without requiring leverage of a separate vulnerability.

sshd.c in OpenSSH 3.6.1p2 and 3.7.1p2 and possibly other versions, when using privilege separation, does not properly signal the non-privileged process when a session has been terminated after exceeding the LoginGraceTime setting, which leaves the connection open and allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (connection consumption).

The default configuration for OpenSSH enables AllowTcpForwarding, which could allow remote authenticated users to perform a port bounce, when configured with an anonymous access program such as AnonCVS.

Directory traversal vulnerability in scp for OpenSSH before 3.4p1 allows remote malicious servers to overwrite arbitrary files. NOTE: this may be a rediscovery of CVE-2000-0992.

sshd in OpenSSH 3.6.1p2 and earlier, when PermitRootLogin is disabled and using PAM keyboard-interactive authentication, does not insert a delay after a root login attempt with the correct password, which makes it easier for remote attackers to use timing differences to determine if the password step of a multi-step authentication is successful, a different vulnerability than CVE-2003-0190.

The PAM conversation function in OpenSSH 3.7.1 and 3.7.1p1 interprets an array of structures as an array of pointers, which allows attackers to modify the stack and possibly gain privileges.

The SSH1 PAM challenge response authentication in OpenSSH 3.7.1 and 3.7.1p1, when Privilege Separation is disabled, does not check the result of the authentication attempt, which can allow remote attackers to gain privileges.

Multiple "buffer management errors" in OpenSSH before 3.7.1 may allow attackers to cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code using (1) buffer_init in buffer.c, (2) buffer_free in buffer.c, or (3) a separate function in channels.c, a different vulnerability than CVE-2003-0693.

"Memory bugs" in OpenSSH 3.7.1 and earlier, with unknown impact, a different set of vulnerabilities than CVE-2003-0693 and CVE-2003-0695.

A "buffer management error" in buffer_append_space of buffer.c for OpenSSH before 3.7 may allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by causing an incorrect amount of memory to be freed and corrupting the heap, a different vulnerability than CVE-2003-0695.

OpenSSH 3.6.1 and earlier, when restricting host access by numeric IP addresses and with VerifyReverseMapping disabled, allows remote attackers to bypass "from=" and "user@host" address restrictions by connecting to a host from a system whose reverse DNS hostname contains the numeric IP address.

OpenSSH-portable (OpenSSH) 3.6.1p1 and earlier with PAM support enabled immediately sends an error message when a user does not exist, which allows remote attackers to determine valid usernames via a timing attack.

sshd in OpenSSH 3.2.2, when using YP with netgroups and under certain conditions, may allow users to successfully authenticate and log in with another user's password.

Buffer overflow in sshd in OpenSSH 2.3.1 through 3.3 may allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a large number of responses during challenge response authentication when OpenBSD is using PAM modules with interactive keyboard authentication (PAMAuthenticationViaKbdInt).

Integer overflow in sshd in OpenSSH 2.9.9 through 3.3 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code during challenge response authentication (ChallengeResponseAuthentication) when OpenSSH is using SKEY or BSD_AUTH authentication.

Buffer overflow in OpenSSH before 2.9.9, and 3.x before 3.2.1, with Kerberos/AFS support and KerberosTgtPassing or AFSTokenPassing enabled, allows remote and local authenticated users to gain privileges.