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Kerberos 5Application · Mit

CVE-2012-1015

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2012-08-06
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
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 kdc_handle_protected_negotiation function in the Key Distribution Center (KDC) in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) 1.8.x, 1.9.x before 1.9.5, and 1.10.x before 1.10.3 attempts to calculate a checksum before verifying that the key type is appropriate for a checksum, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (uninitialized pointer free, heap memory corruption, and daemon crash) via a crafted AS-REQ request.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-20

The application accepts input without confirming it is well-formed or within expected bounds, so malformed data can push the program into states its author never anticipated. Attackers probe these gaps to trigger crashes, bypass logic, or feed tainted values into more dangerous operations downstream. Remediating it well means validating and normalising every input at the boundary against a strict allow-list — not merely filtering known-bad values.

General guidance for the improper input validation class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
Kerberos 5Application
Affected:= 1.8= 1.8.1= 1.8.2= 1.8.3= 1.8.4= 1.8.5= 1.8.6= 1.9.4= 1.10= 1.10.1= 1.10.2

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
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:M/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
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch web.mit.edu →
Recommended fix High confidence

MIT Kerberos 5 1.10.3 or later (or 1.9.5 if staying on the 1.9.x branch)

  1. 1. Identify the current MIT Kerberos 5 version installed: 'krb5-config --version' or check the krb5-server package version
  2. 2. Download MIT Kerberos 5 1.10.3 or later (or 1.9.5+ if staying on 1.9.x branch) from http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/
  3. 3. Stop the Kerberos KDC service: 'service krb5-kdc stop' or 'systemctl stop krb5-kdc'
  4. 4. Back up the current Kerberos configuration and database: tar -czf krb5-backup.tar.gz /etc/krb5.conf /var/lib/krb5kdc/
  5. 5. Compile and install the new version following the included INSTALL or README file: './configure && make && make install'
  6. 6. Verify the installed version matches the fixed release: 'krb5-config --version'
  7. 7. Update any third-party software that integrates with Kerberos to ensure compatibility with the new version
  8. 8. Start the KDC service: 'service krb5-kdc start' or 'systemctl start krb5-kdc'
Caveat Minor: Some configuration syntax may differ between 1.8.x and later versions; review /etc/krb5.conf for compatibility. Ensure any custom GSSAPI or SASL integrations are tested after upgrade.

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

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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-2012-1015 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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