Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian
CVE-2015-5727
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 1.10.x before 1.10.10 and 1.11.x before 1.11.19 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via unspecified vectors, related to a length field.
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 confidenceThe BER (Basic Encoding Rules) decoder in Botan cryptographic library versions 1.10.x before 1.10.10 and 1.11.x before 1.11.19 contains a vulnerability related to improper handling of length fields. Attackers can craft malicious BER-encoded input that causes excessive memory consumption, leading to denial of service.
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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Identify if Botan library is presentSearch for Botan installation: check system package manager (dpkg -l | grep botan, apt list --installed 2>/dev/null | grep -i botan), look for libbotan files (find /usr -name '*botan*' 2>/dev/null), or review application dependencies for Botan usageAffected if Botan library is found on the system or as a dependency of installed applications
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Determine installed Botan versionIf using system package: run 'dpkg -l | grep -i botan' or 'apt show botan' on Debian. If embedded/application-linked: check application documentation, binary strings, or library version files. Compare the version number to the affected rangesAffected if The version is 1.10.0 through 1.10.9, or 1.11.0 through 1.11.18 (versions before 1.10.10 or 1.11.19)
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Identify applications using Botan BER decoderReview running applications or services that process X.509 certificates, PKCS structures, or other ASN.1/BER-encoded data, as these likely use Botan's BER decoderAffected if Applications or services that decode BER/ASN.1 data are running using a vulnerable Botan version
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Check if untrusted BER input is processedAudit logs, application configurations, or network traffic for evidence of processing BER-encoded input from untrusted sources (such as remote clients or external files)Affected if The environment processes BER-encoded data from untrusted or network sources using a vulnerable Botan version
You are affected if a vulnerable Botan version (1.10.0-1.10.9 or 1.11.0-1.11.18) is installed and any application processes BER-encoded input from untrusted sources.
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 or 1.11.19 or later. If upgrading is not immediately possible, sanitize and validate all BER-encoded input before passing it to the decoder, particularly checking length field values for reasonableness.
Fix this in Debian Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing5.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,752.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-5727 — 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-2015-5727 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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