Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2017-9022

The gmp plugin in strongSwan before 5.5.3 does not properly validate RSA public keys before calling mpz_powm_sec, which allows remote peers to cause a denial of service (floating point exception and process crash) via a crafted certificate.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.5, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 3 products from strongswan, from debian, from canonical organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2017, 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

2017-06-08T16:29:00.497

Last Modified

2025-12-03T22:15:49.990

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 7.5 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

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

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

Exploitability Score

10.0

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-20
Type: Secondary
CWE-20

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	strongswan	strongswan	≤ 5.5.2	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	8.0	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	9.0	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	14.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	16.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	16.10	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	17.04	Yes

References

http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3866 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/98760 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3301-1 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://www.strongswan.org/blog/2017/05/30/strongswan-vulnerability-%28cve-2017-9022%29.html ([email protected])
http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3866 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/98760 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3301-1 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.strongswan.org/blog/2017/05/30/strongswan-vulnerability-%28cve-2017-9022%29.html (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 strongswan'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.