Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian
CVE-2015-7542
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NVD · uneditedA vulnerability exists in libgwenhywfar through 4.12.0 due to the usage of outdated bundled CA certificates.
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dbcve analysis · high confidencelibgwenhywfar through version 4.12.0 ships with outdated bundled CA (Certificate Authority) certificates, which can cause SSL/TLS connection failures for servers with valid certificates issued by newer CAs, or potentially allow connections to servers with certificates that should no longer be trusted due to certificate expiration or revocation.
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= 9.0= 10.0= 11.0<= 4.12.0= 42.2= 42.3CVSS 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
- Low
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed libgwenhywfar versionRun 'dpkg -l libgwenhywfar' on Debian/Ubuntu, or 'rpm -qi gwenhywfar' or 'rpm -qa | grep gwenhywfar' on RHEL/SUSE systems, or check your system's package managerAffected if The installed version is 4.12.0 or lower, or the package version matches the affected Debian/SUSE versions listed (Debian 8.0-11.0, Leap 42.2-42.3)
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Locate the bundled CA certificate bundleSearch for the CA bundle file commonly named 'ca-certificates.crt', 'ca-bundle.crt', or located under /etc/ssl/certs/ or within the libgwenhywfar shared library directoryAffected if A CA certificate bundle exists and is bundled or referenced by the libgwenhywfar library
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Determine the age of the bundled CA bundleCheck the file modification date of the CA bundle (ls -la <path_to_ca_bundle>) or examine the embedded date/version within the certificate bundle file itselfAffected if The CA bundle file has a modification date prior to 2015 or the certificates embedded in the bundle have not been updated since before the CVE was published (February 2016)
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Test for SSL/TLS connection failuresIf your application uses libgwenhywfar for SSL/TLS connections, attempt a connection to a server with a valid certificate issued by a newer CA (such as Let's Encrypt or newer commercial CAs)Affected if SSL/TLS connections fail with certificate validation errors for valid certificates from newer CAs, or connections succeed when they should fail due to expired/revoked certificates in the outdated bundle
You are affected if libgwenhywfar version 4.12.0 or lower is installed and the bundled CA certificate bundle has not been updated to include certificates from newer Certificate Authorities.
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 dataUpdate the bundled CA certificate bundle to a current version, or upgrade to a libgwenhywfar release beyond 4.12.0 if available, and verify SSL/TLS connectivity remains functional.
Fix this in Debian Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-7542 — 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-2015-7542 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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