CVE-2017-15088
plugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2...
CVE-2017-15088 is a critical vulnerability (CVSS 9.8) in Mit Kerberos 5, published November 8, 2017. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 8.30%, the 94th percentile. Fixed in krb5 1.15.3-r0.
plugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2 mishandles Distinguished Name (DN) fields, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and application crash) in situations involving untrusted X.509 data, related to the get_matching_data and X509_NAME_oneline_ex functions. NOTE: this has security relevance only in use cases outside of the MIT Kerberos distribution, e.g., the use of get_matching_data in KDC certauth plugin code that is specific to Red Hat.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
9.8
plugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2 mishandles Distinguished Name (DN) fields, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and application crash) in situations involving untrusted X.509 data, related to the get_matching_data and X509_NAME_oneline_ex functions. NOTE: this has security relevance only in use cases outside of the MIT Kerberos distribution, e.g., the use of get_matching_data in KDC certauth plugin code that is specific to Red Hat.
- Record
CVE-2017-15088- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 7.5 High
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-121, CWE-119
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
plugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2 mishandles Distinguished Name (DN) fields, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and application crash) in situations involving untrusted X.509 data, related to the get_matching_data and X509_NAME_oneline_ex functions. NOTE: this has security relevance only in use cases outside of the MIT Kerberos distribution, e.g., the use of get_matching_data in KDC certauth plugin code that is specific to Red Hat.
- Record
CVE-2017-15088- Weakness
- CWE-121
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2017-6557 No score
plugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2 mishandles Distinguished Name (DN) fields, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and application crash) in situations involving untrusted X.509 data, related to the get_matching_data and X509_NAME_oneline_ex functions. NOTE: this has security relevance only in use cases outside of the MIT Kerberos distribution, e.g., the use of get_matching_data in KDC certauth plugin code that is specific to Red Hat.
- Record
EUVD-2017-6557- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-3jq7-j743-cxfp
9.8
plugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2...
plugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2 mishandles Distinguished Name (DN) fields, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and application crash) in situations involving untrusted X.509 data, related to the get_matching_data and X509_NAME_oneline_ex functions. NOTE: this has security relevance only in use cases outside of the MIT Kerberos distribution, e.g., the use of get_matching_data in KDC certauth plugin code that is specific to Red Hat.
- Record
GHSA-3jq7-j743-cxfp- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-119, CWE-121
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVALPINE-CVE-2017-15088
9.8
plugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2 mishandles Distinguished Name (DN) fields, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and application crash) in situations involving untrusted X.509 data, related to the get_matching_data and X509_NAME_oneline_ex functions. NOTE: this has security relevance only in use cases outside of the MIT Kerberos distribution, e.g., the use of get_matching_data in KDC certauth plugin code that is specific to Red Hat.
- Record
ALPINE-CVE-2017-15088- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVBELL-CVE-2017-15088
9.8
CVE-2017-15088 does not affect BellSoft software
- Record
BELL-CVE-2017-15088- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
Show 5 moreShow less
OSV
9.8
plugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2 mishandles Distinguished Name (DN) fields, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and application crash) in situations involving untrusted X.509 data, related to the get_matching_data and X509_NAME_oneline_ex functions. NOTE: this has security relevance only in use cases outside of the MIT Kerberos distribution, e.g., the use of get_matching_data in KDC certauth plugin code that is specific to Red Hat.
- Record
CVE-2017-15088- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2017-15088
9.8
plugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2 mishandles Distinguished Name (DN) fields, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and application crash) in situations involving untrusted X.509 data, related to the get_matching_data and X509_NAME_oneline_ex functions. NOTE: this has security relevance only in use cases outside of the MIT Kerberos distribution, e.g., the use of get_matching_data in KDC certauth plugin code that is specific to Red Hat.
- Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2017-15088- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2017-15088
9.8
plugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2 mishandles Distinguished Name (DN) fields, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and application crash) in situations involving untrusted X.509 data, related to the get_matching_data and X509_NAME_oneline_ex functions. NOTE: this has security relevance only in use cases outside of the MIT Kerberos distribution, e.g., the use of get_matching_data in KDC certauth plugin code that is specific to Red Hat.
- Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2017-15088- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVMGASA-2017-0420 No score
Updated krb5 packages fix security vulnerabilities
An authentication bypass flaw was found in the way krb5's certauth interface handled the validation of client certificates. A remote attacker able to communicate with the KDC could potentially use this flaw to impersonate arbitrary principals under rare and erroneous circumstances (CVE-2017-7562). Note that this issue only affects Mageia 6.
RFC 2744 permits a GSS-API implementation to delete an existing security context on a second or subsequent call to gss_init_sec_context() or gss_accept_sec_context() if the call results in an error. This API behavior has been found to be dangerous, leading to the possibility of memory errors in some callers. For safety, GSS-API implementations should instead preserve existing security contexts on error until the caller deletes them (CVE-2017-11462).
A buffer overflow vulnerability was found in get_matching_data() function when both the CA cert and the user cert have a long subject affecting krb5 that includes certauth plugin. Attack requires a validated certificate with a long subject and issuer, and a "pkinit_cert_match" string attribute on some principal in the database. A remote code execution exploit might also require that the attacker gets to choose the contents of the issuer in the validated cert (CVE-2017-15088).
- Record
MGASA-2017-0420- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2017:2948-1 No score
Security update for krb5
This update for krb5 fixes the following issues:
Security issues fixed:
- CVE-2017-15088: A buffer overflow in get_matching_data() was fixed that could under specific circumstances be used to execute code (bsc#1065274)
- Record
SUSE-SU-2017:2948-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
krb5Alpine:v3.10 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.11 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.12 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.13 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.14 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.15 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.16 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.17 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.18 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.19 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
Show 24 moreShow less
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
krb5Alpine:v3.20 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.21 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.22 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.23 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.24 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.7 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.8 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Alpine:v3.9 |
before 1.15.3-r0 | 1.15.3-r0 |
krb5Debian:12 |
before 1.15.2-2 | 1.15.2-2 |
krb5Debian:13 |
before 1.15.2-2 | 1.15.2-2 |
krb5Debian:14 |
before 1.15.2-2 | 1.15.2-2 |
krb5Mageia:5 |
before 1.12.5-1.3.mga5 | 1.12.5-1.3.mga5 |
krb5Mageia:6 |
before 1.15.1-2.2.mga6 | 1.15.1-2.2.mga6 |
krb5SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP2 |
before 1.12.5-40.16.1 | 1.12.5-40.16.1 |
krb5SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP3 |
before 1.12.5-40.16.1 | 1.12.5-40.16.1 |
krb5SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2 |
before 1.12.5-40.16.1 | 1.12.5-40.16.1 |
krb5SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP2 |
before 1.12.5-40.16.1 | 1.12.5-40.16.1 |
krb5SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP3 |
before 1.12.5-40.16.1 | 1.12.5-40.16.1 |
krb5SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2 |
before 1.12.5-40.16.1 | 1.12.5-40.16.1 |
krb5SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP2 |
before 1.12.5-40.16.1 | 1.12.5-40.16.1 |
krb5SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3 |
before 1.12.5-40.16.1 | 1.12.5-40.16.1 |
krb5SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP3 |
before 1.12.5-40.16.1 | 1.12.5-40.16.1 |
krb5Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS |
All versions, plus listed versions 1.10.1+dfsg-6.1ubuntu11.11.3+dfsg-3ubuntu21.12+dfsg-2ubuntu11.12+dfsg-2ubuntu21.12+dfsg-2ubuntu3 Show 14 moreShow less1.12+dfsg-2ubuntu41.12+dfsg-2ubuntu4.21.12+dfsg-2ubuntu51.12+dfsg-2ubuntu5.11.12+dfsg-2ubuntu5.21.12+dfsg-2ubuntu5.31.12+dfsg-2ubuntu5.41.12+dfsg-2ubuntu5.4+esm11.12+dfsg-2ubuntu5.4+esm21.12+dfsg-2ubuntu5.4+esm31.12+dfsg-2ubuntu5.4+esm41.12+dfsg-2ubuntu5.4+esm51.12+dfsg-2ubuntu5.4+esm61.12+dfsg-2ubuntu5.4+esm7 |
None known |
krb5Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS |
before 1.13.2+dfsg-5ubuntu2.2+esm3, plus listed versions 1.13.2+dfsg-21.13.2+dfsg-31.13.2+dfsg-41.13.2+dfsg-51.13.2+dfsg-5ubuntu1 Show 4 moreShow less1.13.2+dfsg-5ubuntu21.13.2+dfsg-5ubuntu2.11.13.2+dfsg-5ubuntu2.1+esm11.13.2+dfsg-5ubuntu2.2 |
1.13.2+dfsg-5ubuntu2.2+esm3 |
History
| When | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-11-03 | aliases | EUVD |
| 2026-11-02 | created | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
References
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1504045
bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=871698
github.com/krb5/krb5/commit/fbb687db1088ddd894d975996e5f6a4252b9a2b4
github.com/krb5/krb5/pull/707
securityfocus.com/bid/101594
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-15088
Show 14 moreShow less
github.com/advisories/GHSA-3jq7-j743-cxfp
security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2017-15088
docs.bell-sw.com/security/cves/CVE-2017-15088
security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-15088
advisories.mageia.org/MGASA-2017-0420.html
bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21628
lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/2XIPFDWKYB3HQKSWLVJ6AAPFEG6BEPE3
lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/2FPRUP4YVOEBGEROUYWZFEQ64HTMGNED
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2017-11/msg00039.html
suse.com/support/update/announcement/2017/suse-su-20172948-1
bugzilla.suse.com/1065274
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-15088
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-15088
cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-15088