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Unscored CVE-2023-3326 EUVD-2023-43994GHSA-vjhp-527w-c5vj

Network authentication attack via pam_krb5

Published Jun 22, 2023 · Updated Dec 5, 2024 · Assigned by freebsd

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.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
FreeBSD FreeBSD 13.2-RELEASE – < 13.2-RELEASE-p1, 13.1-RELEASE – < 13.1-RELEASE-p8, 12.4-RELEASE – < 12.4-RELEASE-p3 13.2-RELEASE-p1

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 libpam-krb5 No fix yet —
Debian 13 libpam-krb5 No fix yet —
Debian 12 libpam-krb5 No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 sssd +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS sssd +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 sssd +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS sssd +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS sssd +1 No fix yet —
Show 7 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS libpam-krb5 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS libpam-krb5 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS libpam-krb5 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS sssd No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS sssd No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS sssd No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS libpam-krb5 No fix yet —

Advisories 1

References