Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian
CVE-2015-5726
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 · uneditedThe BER decoder in Botan 0.10.x before 1.10.10 and 1.11.x before 1.11.19 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via an empty BIT STRING in ASN.1 data.
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 confidenceA denial of service vulnerability exists in the BER decoder of Botan cryptographic library versions 0.10.x before 1.10.10 and 1.11.x before 1.11.19. The vulnerability is triggered when parsing ASN.1 data containing an empty BIT STRING, causing the application to crash.
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
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 8.0= 1.10.0= 1.10.1= 1.10.2= 1.10.3= 1.10.4= 1.10.5= 1.10.6= 1.10.7= 1.10.8= 1.10.9= 1.11.0= 1.11.1CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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.
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Locate Botan library installationSearch for libbotan files on the system: find /usr -name '*botan*' 2>/dev/null or check package manager: dpkg -l | grep botan (Debian) or rpm -qa | grep botan (RHEL-based)Affected if Botan library is not found on the system - not affected
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Identify installed Botan versionIf using Debian package: dpkg -l | grep botan. If binary linked: ldd <executable> | grep botan or strings <libbotan.so> | grep '^1\.' | head -5. Check header files if available: grep -i 'version\|BOTAN' /usr/include/botan/build.h or /usr/include/botan/version.hAffected if Version cannot be determined - status unknown, assume potentially affected
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Compare version against vulnerable rangesCheck if version starts with 1.10.0 through 1.10.9, or 1.11.0 through 1.11.18. Versions before 1.10.10 and 1.11.19 are vulnerable.Affected if Installed version is 1.10.x where x < 10, OR 1.11.x where x < 19 - AFFECTED
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Determine if ASN.1/BER parsing is in useReview application code or configuration for usage of Botan ASN.1 parsing functions, specifically BER_Decoder or BIT_STRING parsing. Check logs or network inputs for ASN.1 data processing.Affected if Application parses ASN.1 BER data containing BIT STRINGs - potentially exploitable
Affected if running Botan version 1.10.0-1.10.9 or 1.11.0-1.11.18 AND the application performs ASN.1/BER parsing that could receive empty BIT STRING data.
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 Botan to version 1.10.10, 1.11.19, or later to receive the security patch. This is a library upgrade requiring regression testing of any functionality relying on ASN.1/BER parsing.
Fix this in Debian Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,072.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-5726 — 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-2015-5726 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
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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