vulnerability
FreeBSD: (Multiple Advisories) (CVE-2023-3326): FreeBSD -- Network authentication attack via pam_krb5
Severity | CVSS | Published | Added | Modified |
---|---|---|---|---|
10 | (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C) | Jun 22, 2023 | Aug 31, 2023 | Jan 28, 2025 |
Description
pam_krb5 authenticates a user by essentially running kinit with the password, getting a ticket-granting ticket (tgt) from the Kerberos KDC (Key Distribution Center) over the network, as a way to verify the password. However, if a keytab is not provisioned on the system, pam_krb5 has no way to validate the response from the KDC, and essentially trusts the tgt provided over the network as being valid. In a non-default FreeBSD installation that leverages pam_krb5 for authentication and does not have a keytab provisioned, an attacker that is able to control both the password and the KDC responses can return a valid tgt, allowing authentication to occur for any user on the system.
Solution(s)
References

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