Home/CVE/The PKCS#11 feature in ssh-agent in OpenSSH before 9.3p2 has an insufficiently trustworthy search path, leading to remot
CVE

CVE-2023-38408

The PKCS#11 feature in ssh-agent in OpenSSH before 9.3p2 has an insufficiently trustworthy search path, leading to remot

The PKCS#11 feature in ssh-agent in OpenSSH before 9.3p2 has an insufficiently trustworthy search path, leading to remote code execution if an agent is forwarded to an attacker-controlled system. (Code in /usr/lib is not necessarily safe for loading into ssh-agent.) NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2016-10009.

CRITICAL · CVSS 9.8 EPSS 0.64352
Act now
  • EPSS ≥ 0.50 - high probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
  • EPSS percentile: top 2% of all CVEs by exploitation likelihood
  • Public exploit or PoC is available
  • SSVC automatable: yes - attacks can be scripted at scale
  • CVSS base score ≥ 7.0
Sigma rules2 YARA rules0
⬡

Weakness Classification

CWE-428Unquoted Search Path or Element
CWE-428Unquoted Search Path or Element
▤

Affected Products & Versions

3
openbsd openssh< 9.3
openbsd opensshall versions
fedoraproject fedoraall versions
⚠

Public Exploits & PoCs

2
pocpacketstormsecurity.com · OpenSSH-Forwarded-SSH-Agent-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlpacketstormsecurity.com
pocwww.qualys.com · rce-openssh-forwarded-ssh-agent.txtwww.qualys.com
◈

Sigma Hunt Rules

2
Exact rules name this CVE ID. Product rules name an affected product in their title. Related rules cover techniques used by actors who exploited this CVE. Showing the most relevant matches; the complete related set is on the full drill-down.
productmediumSuspicious OpenSSH Daemon Error
productmediumOpenSSH Server Listening On Socket
▣

Scoring & Timeline

9.8
CRITICAL · CVSS v3.1 · cve@mitre.org
View on NVD
Attack Vector
Network Adjacent Local Physical
Attack Complexity
Low High
Privileges Required
None Low High
User Interaction
None Required
Scope
Unchanged Changed
Confidentiality
None Low High
Integrity
None Low High
Availability
None Low High
Published to NVD20 Jul 2023 · 03:15 AM
CVSS VectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
SSVC triage · cisa-vulnrichment
Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
SSVC asks the questions that actually drive patch urgency: is it being exploited, can attacks be automated, and how total is the impact.
⚑

Vendor Advisories

23
suse-csafopenSUSE-SU-2024:13063-1
siemens-csafSSA-398330
usnUSN-6242-2
msrcCVE-2023-38408
usnUSN-6242-1
🔗

References & Sources

18
Source URLs (vendor pages, mailing lists, write-ups). Exploit/PoC links are in their own section above to avoid duplication.
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/07/20/1ExploitMailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/07/20/2Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/22/11
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/22/9
https://blog.qualys.com/vulnerabilities-threat-research/2023/07/19/cve-2023-38408-remote-code-execution-in-opensshs-forwarded-ssh-agentThird Party Advisory
https://github.com/openbsd/src/commit/7bc29a9d5cd697290aa056e94ecee6253d3425f8Patch
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