Privilege escalation in OpenSSH

1) Use-after free

EUVDB-ID: #VU1482

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 8.2 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:F/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2015-6564

CWE-ID: CWE-416 - Use After Free

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to a use after free error within the mm_answer_pam_free_ctx() function in monitor.c in sshd daemon on non-OpenBSD platforms. A local unprivileged user can send an unexpected early MONITOR_REQ_PAM_FREE_CTX request and gain root privileges on the system.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

OpenSSH: 6.9p1

External links

http://www.openssh.com/txt/release-7.0

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to send a specially crafted request to the affected application in order to exploit this vulnerability.

The attacker would have to login to the system and perform certain actions in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability. However, a fully functional exploit for this vulnerability is available.