CVE-2013-6466
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 · uneditedOpenswan 2.6.39 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and IKE daemon restart) via IKEv2 packets that lack expected payloads.
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 · high confidenceOpenswan IPsec VPN software versions 2.6.39 and earlier contains a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability when processing IKEv2 packets that are missing expected payloads. The vulnerability causes the IKE daemon to crash and restart, resulting in a denial of service condition.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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<= 2.6.39= 2.3.0= 2.3.1= 2.4.0= 2.4.1= 2.4.2= 2.4.3= 2.4.4= 2.4.5= 2.4.6= 2.4.7= 2.4.8CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
-
Verify Openswan is installedRun 'rpm -qa | grep -i openswan' or 'dpkg -l | grep -i openswan' to list installed Openswan packagesAffected if No Openswan package is found, the system is not affected by this specific CVE
-
Determine installed Openswan versionRun 'rpm -q openswan --queryformat "%{VERSION}\n"' or 'dpkg -s openswan | grep Version' to obtain the exact version numberAffected if The version is 2.6.39 or earlier, or matches any of these: 2.3.0, 2.3.1, 2.4.0 through 2.4.8
-
Check if IKEv2 is enabled in the configurationInspect /etc/ipsec.conf and look for 'ikev2=...' or 'nat_traversal=' directives, or check for IKEv2-specific connection definitions in /etc/ipsec.d/Affected if IKEv2 support is enabled or IKEv2 connections are configured; without IKEv2 enabled, the vulnerability cannot be triggered
-
Verify the IKE daemon (pluto) is runningRun 'ps aux | grep pluto' or 'service ipsec status' to check if the IPsec daemon is activeAffected if The pluto daemon is running and handling IKEv2 connections; the crash only occurs when the daemon processes vulnerable IKEv2 packets
The system is affected if Openswan version 2.6.39 or earlier is installed AND the IKE daemon is configured to handle IKEv2 connections, as the NULL pointer dereference only triggers when processing malformed IKEv2 packets.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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.
From vendor dataUpgrade Openswan to a version newer than 2.6.39 that includes the fix for this vulnerability. If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider restricting IKEv2 traffic at network perimeter to mitigate remote exploitation.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-6466 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-6466 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data