Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2023-38408


The PKCS#11 feature in ssh-agent in OpenSSH before 9.3p2 has an insufficiently trustworthy search path, leading to remote code execution if an agent is forwarded to an attacker-controlled system. (Code in /usr/lib is not necessarily safe for loading into ssh-agent.) NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2016-10009.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a CRITICAL severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 9.8, 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), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 2 products from openbsd, from fedoraproject organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2023, 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

2023-07-20T03:15:10.170

Last Modified

2024-11-21T08:13:30.520

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 9.8 (CRITICAL)

Weaknesses
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-428
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-428

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application openbsd openssh < 9.3 Yes
Application openbsd openssh 9.3 Yes
Application openbsd openssh 9.3 Yes
Operating System fedoraproject fedora 37 Yes
Operating System fedoraproject fedora 38 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 openbsd'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.