FedoraOperating system · Fedoraproject

CVE-2013-7459

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-02-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.6.1 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit 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
Heap-based buffer overflow in the ALGnew function in block_templace.c in Python Cryptography Toolkit (aka pycrypto) allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code as demonstrated by a crafted iv parameter to cryptmsg.py.

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-119

The program reads or writes outside the bounds of an allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory. With crafted input an attacker can overwrite control data and, with effort, redirect execution to their own code. Remediation ranges from bounds checking and safe library functions to compiler mitigations, usually alongside a careful audit of the surrounding code.

General guidance for the memory buffer bounds error 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
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 24= 25
PycryptoApplication
Affected:<= 2.6.1

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 a release after 2.6.1
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Migrate from pycrypto (<=2.6.1) to pycryptodome (latest stable version)

  1. 1. Identify all Python applications and dependencies that use PyCrypto (pycrypto) in your environment.
  2. 2. Remove the vulnerable pycrypto package: pip uninstall pycrypto
  3. 3. Install the maintained replacement library pycryptodome: pip install pycryptodome
  4. 4. Update application import statements: change 'from Crypto import ...' to 'from Cryptodome import ...' (or use 'from Crypto import ...' which pycryptodome also supports for backward compatibility)
  5. 5. Test all cryptographic functionality to ensure proper operation after the migration
  6. 6. Search codebase for any remaining references to 'pycrypto' and update to 'pycryptodome'
Caveat PyCrypto is unmaintained; pycryptodome is a drop-in replacement but may require import path changes; some legacy APIs differ

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-2013-7459 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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
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