Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2015-5291

Heap-based buffer overflow in PolarSSL 1.x before 1.2.17 and ARM mbed TLS (formerly PolarSSL) 1.3.x before 1.3.14 and 2.x before 2.1.2 allows remote SSL servers to cause a denial of service (client crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via a long hostname to the server name indication (SNI) extension, which is not properly handled when creating a ClientHello message. NOTE: this identifier has been SPLIT per ADT3 due to different affected version ranges. See CVE-2015-8036 for the session ticket issue that was introduced in 1.3.0.

Security Impact Summary

CVE-2015-5291 is a security vulnerability that . Impacting 6 products from polarssl, from trustedfirmware, from debian and 3 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2015, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.

Published

2015-11-02T19:59:05.123

Last Modified

2026-06-17T00:28:49.777

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv2: 6.8 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

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

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

Exploitability Score

8.6

Impact Score

6.4

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-119

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	polarssl	polarssl	< 1.2.17	Yes
Application	trustedfirmware	mbed_tls	< 1.3.14	Yes
Application	trustedfirmware	mbed_tls	< 2.1.2	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	7.0	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	8.0	Yes
Operating System	fedoraproject	fedora	21	Yes
Operating System	fedoraproject	fedora	22	Yes
Operating System	fedoraproject	fedora	23	Yes
Operating System	opensuse	leap	42.1	Yes
Operating System	opensuse	opensuse	13.2	Yes

References

http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-November/170317.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-October/169625.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-October/169765.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-12/msg00013.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-12/msg00119.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3468 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://guidovranken.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/cve-2015-5291.pdf Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://guidovranken.wordpress.com/2015/10/07/cve-2015-5291/ Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201706-18 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://tls.mbed.org/tech-updates/security-advisories/mbedtls-security-advisory-2015-01 Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-November/170317.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-October/169625.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-October/169765.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-12/msg00013.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-12/msg00119.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3468 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://guidovranken.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/cve-2015-5291.pdf Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://guidovranken.wordpress.com/2015/10/07/cve-2015-5291/ Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201706-18 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://tls.mbed.org/tech-updates/security-advisories/mbedtls-security-advisory-2015-01 Vendor Advisory (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 polarssl'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.