Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2011-4197

etc/inc/certs.inc in the PKI implementation in pfSense before 2.0.1 creates each X.509 certificate with a true value for the CA basic constraint, which allows remote attackers to create sub-certificates for arbitrary subjects by leveraging the private key.

Security Impact Summary

CVE-2011-4197 is a security vulnerability that . Impacting 1 product from pfsense organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Documented in 2012, this vulnerability occurred amid the cloud computing expansion era, where traditional network perimeter security models were being reevaluated. Organizations were transitioning from isolated infrastructure to interconnected systems, creating new attack surfaces that vulnerabilities like this could exploit.

Published

2012-01-03T19:55:03.560

Last Modified

2025-04-11T00:51:21.963

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv2: 7.5 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Access Vector: NETWORK
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
Integrity Impact: PARTIAL
Availability Impact: PARTIAL

Exploitability Score

10.0

Impact Score

6.4

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-264

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	pfsense	pfsense	≤ 2.0	Yes
Application	pfsense	pfsense	1.0.x	Yes
Application	pfsense	pfsense	1.2.1	Yes
Application	pfsense	pfsense	1.2.2	Yes
Application	pfsense	pfsense	1.2.3	Yes

References

http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/bugtraq/2011-12/0152.html ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/46780 Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.osvdb.org/77982 ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/51169 ([email protected])
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/71969 ([email protected])
https://github.com/bsdperimeter/pfsense/commit/1379d66f11aaf72982a70287b83e24efcd18898e ([email protected])
https://github.com/bsdperimeter/pfsense/commit/87b4deb2b2dae9013e6aa0fe490d6a5a04a27894 ([email protected])
https://www.trustmatta.com/advisories/MATTA-2011-001.txt ([email protected])
http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/bugtraq/2011-12/0152.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/46780 Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.osvdb.org/77982 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/51169 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/71969 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/bsdperimeter/pfsense/commit/1379d66f11aaf72982a70287b83e24efcd18898e (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/bsdperimeter/pfsense/commit/87b4deb2b2dae9013e6aa0fe490d6a5a04a27894 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.trustmatta.com/advisories/MATTA-2011-001.txt (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For pfsense's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.