Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2021-45079


In strongSwan before 5.9.5, a malicious responder can send an EAP-Success message too early without actually authenticating the client and (in the case of EAP methods with mutual authentication and EAP-only authentication for IKEv2) even without server authentication.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a CRITICAL severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 9.1, 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 confidentiality (data exposure), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 5 products from strongswan, from debian, from fedoraproject and 2 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2022, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2022-01-31T08:15:07.307

Last Modified

2024-11-21T06:31:54.450

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 9.1 (CRITICAL)

CVSSv2 Vector

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

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

8.6

Impact Score

4.9

Weaknesses
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-476

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application strongswan strongswan < 5.9.5 Yes
Operating System debian debian_linux 9.0 Yes
Operating System debian debian_linux 10.0 Yes
Operating System debian debian_linux 11.0 Yes
Application fedoraproject extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux 7.0 Yes
Application fedoraproject extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux 8.0 Yes
Application fedoraproject extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux 9.0 Yes
Operating System fedoraproject fedora 34 Yes
Operating System fedoraproject fedora 35 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 20.04 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 21.10 Yes

References

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.