CVE-2025-26465
Published: February 19, 2025Last modified: February 28, 2025
Description
A vulnerability was found in OpenSSH when the VerifyHostKeyDNS option is enabled. A machine-in-the-middle attack can be performed by a malicious machine impersonating a legit server. This issue occurs due to how OpenSSH mishandles error codes in specific conditions when verifying the host key. For an attack to be considered successful, the attacker needs to manage to exhaust the client's memory resource first, turning the attack complexity high.
Severity score breakdown
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Base score | 6.8 |
| Attack Vector | NETWORK |
| Attack complexity | HIGH |
| Privileges required | NONE |
| User interaction | REQUIRED |
| Scope | UNCHANGED |
| Confidentiality | HIGH |
| Integrity impact | HIGH |
| Availability impact | NONE |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N |
Status
| Product | Release | Package | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpaquita Linux | 23 LTS | openssh | Fixed (9.1_p1-r9) |
| Stream | openssh | Fixed (9.9_p2-r0) |
References
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:3837
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:6993
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-26465
- https://blog.qualys.com/vulnerabilities-threat-research/2025/02/18/qualys-tru-discovers-two-vulnerabilities-in-openssh-cve-2025-26465-cve-2025-26466
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2344780
- https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1237040
- https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/patches/7.6/common/008_ssh.patch.sig
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/02/msg00020.html
- https://lists.mindrot.org/pipermail/openssh-unix-announce/2025-February/000161.html
- https://seclists.org/oss-sec/2025/q1/144
- https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-26465
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20250228-0003/
- https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-26465
- https://www.openssh.com/releasenotes.html#9.9p2
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/02/18/1
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/02/18/4
- https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/18/openssh_vulnerabilities_mitm_dos/
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2025-26465-detect-vulnerable-openssh
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2025-26465-mitigate-vulnerable-openssh