OS command injection in Dropbear - CVE-2025-47203

Vulnerability details

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

The vulnerability exists due to improper input validation in dbclient when handling hostname argument. A local user with ability to control the hostname can pass a specially crafted input to the application and execute arbitrary OS commands on the target system.

Affected software

How to mitigate CVE-2025-47203

External References

• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/05/09/4
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/05/12/6
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/05/13/1
• https://github.com/mkj/dropbear/blob/master/CHANGES
• https://github.com/mkj/dropbear/blob/master/src/cli-main.c

Related Security Bulletins

• Privilege escalation in Dropbear SSH dbclient
• Fedora 42 update for dropbear
• Arch Linux update for dropbear
• Fedora 41 update for dropbear