pam-krb5 before 4.9 has a buffer overflow that might cause remote code execution in situations involving supplemental prompting by a Kerberos library. It may overflow a buffer provided by the underlying Kerberos library by a single '\0' byte if an attacker responds to a prompt with an answer of a carefully chosen length. The effect may range from heap corruption to stack corruption depending on the structure of the underlying Kerberos library, with unknown effects but possibly including code execution. This code path is not used for normal authentication, but only when the Kerberos library does supplemental prompting, such as with PKINIT or when using the non-standard no_prompt PAM configuration option.
CVSS Details
- CVSS 3.1 Base Score: 9.8
- CVSS 3.1 Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)
Covered by Rapid7
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arch Linux | — | Upgrade to the latest version of Arch Linux | Jul 11, 2025 | Mar 31, 2020 |
| Debian | — | Upgrade libpam-krb5 | Apr 2, 2020 | Mar 31, 2020 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade libpam-krb5Upgrade libpam-krb5 (Ubuntu Pro) | Apr 1, 2020 | Mar 31, 2020 |
Prioritise with Active Threat Intelligence
With curated Threat Intelligence, you can see which vulnerabilities truly put you at risk, prioritize what matters most, and act before attackers do.
Explore Intelligence Hub