TorApplication · Torproject

CVE-2014-5117

MEDIUM · 5.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-07-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 0.2.4.22 or later.
See remediation →
67/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
Tor before 0.2.4.23 and 0.2.5 before 0.2.5.6-alpha maintains a circuit after an inbound RELAY_EARLY cell is received by a client, which makes it easier for remote attackers to conduct traffic-confirmation attacks by using the pattern of RELAY and RELAY_EARLY cells as a means of communicating information about hidden service names.

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 confidence

Tor maintains circuit state after receiving an inbound RELAY_EARLY cell from a relay, which allows remote attackers to conduct traffic-confirmation attacks by correlating patterns of RELAY and RELAY_EARLY cells to infer information about hidden service names.

MitigationUpgrade Tor to version 0.2.4.23 or later, or 0.2.5.6-alpha or later.

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
TorApplication
Affected:<= 0.2.4.22= 0.0.2= 0.0.3= 0.0.4= 0.0.5= 0.0.6= 0.0.6.1= 0.0.6.2= 0.0.7= 0.0.7.1= 0.0.7.2= 0.0.7.3

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
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
None

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Tor version
    Run 'tor --version' or check the version reported in Tor logs
    Affected if The version is 0.2.4.22 or earlier, or any 0.0.x version through 0.0.7.3
  2. Confirm Tor is running as a relay
    Check torrc configuration for 'ORPort' directive or verify the relay port is listening (e.g., netstat -n | grep ORPort)
    Affected if Tor is configured as a relay with an ORPort open; the vulnerability applies to relay operations
  3. Verify inbound RELAY_EARLY cell handling
    Inspect Tor logs for circuit creation events; this is a passive vulnerability requiring no specific config check as the flaw exists in code
    Affected if Running an affected Tor version as a relay enables the vulnerability by default

You are affected if running Tor version 0.2.4.22 or earlier, or any 0.0.x version (0.0.2 through 0.0.7.3), and the Tor instance is operating as a relay.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 0.2.4.22
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Tor to version 0.2.4.23 or later, or 0.2.5.6-alpha or later.

Fix this in Tor Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,190
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,904.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-5117 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-5117 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data