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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2002-1235

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2002-11-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 0.5.1 / 1.2.1 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The kadm_ser_in function in (1) the Kerberos v4compatibility administration daemon (kadmind4) in the MIT Kerberos 5 (krb5) krb5-1.2.6 and earlier, (2) kadmind in KTH Kerberos 4 (eBones) before 1.2.1, and (3) kadmind in KTH Kerberos 5 (Heimdal) before 0.5.1 when compiled with Kerberos 4 support, does not properly verify the length field of a request, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a buffer overflow attack.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 3.0
Kth Kerberos 4Application
Affected:< 1.2.1
Kth Kerberos 5Application
Affected:< 0.5.1
Kerberos 5Application
Affected:>= 1.0, <= 1.2.6

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

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

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 0.5.1 / 1.2.1 or later
Fixed in 0.5.11.2.1
Vendor patch www.cert.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

MIT Kerberos 5: 1.2.7+ or modern stable (1.18+/1.21+); KTH Kerberos 4: 1.2.1+; KTH Kerberos 5 (Heimdal): 0.5.1+

  1. 1. Identify which Kerberos implementation is in use: MIT Kerberos 5, KTH Kerberos 4 (eBones), or KTH Kerberos 5 (Heimdal)
  2. 2. For MIT Kerberos 5: Upgrade from any version 1.0-1.2.6 to version 1.2.7 or later (or preferably to a modern stable release like 1.18+ or 1.21+)
  3. 3. For KTH Kerberos 4 (eBones): Upgrade to version 1.2.1 or later
  4. 4. For KTH Kerberos 5 (Heimdal): Upgrade to version 0.5.1 or later, or disable Kerberos 4 compatibility mode if upgrade is not feasible
  5. 5. After upgrade, restart the kadmind daemon to apply changes
  6. 6. Verify the kadmind service is running and properly bound to the configured ports
Caveat Upgrading Kerberos may require updating krb5.conf and keytabs; ensure backup of configuration files and principal database before upgrade; test in non-production environment first

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2002-1235 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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