CVE-2015-7665
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 · uneditedTails before 1.7 includes the wget program but does not prevent automatic fallback from passive FTP to active FTP, which allows remote FTP servers to discover the Tor client IP address by reading a (1) PORT or (2) EPRT command. NOTE: within wget itself, the automatic fallback is not considered a vulnerability by CVE.
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 confidenceTails before version 1.7 includes wget but does not prevent automatic fallback from passive FTP to active FTP. When wget falls back, it sends PORT or EPRT commands containing the client's IP address to the FTP server, allowing remote servers to discover the Tor client's real IP address and deanonymize the user.
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<= 1.6CVSS 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:3.0/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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Check Tails versionVerify the installed Tails version by examining the system information or release notes. The version is typically displayed on the Tails welcome screen or can be checked via system documentation.Affected if The Tails version is 1.6 or earlier (any version up to and including 1.6)
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Verify wget is presentConfirm that the wget utility is installed and available on the system. This can be done by checking if the wget binary exists in the system path or by attempting to execute 'wget --version'.Affected if wget is installed and accessible on the system
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Examine wget FTP configurationCheck the wget configuration files and command-line defaults for FTP mode settings. Look for configuration files such as ~/.wgetrc, /etc/wgetrc, or any .wgetrc in the Tails configuration directory. Inspect for directives related to FTP passive mode, such as 'passive_ftp' or similar settings.Affected if The wget configuration does not enforce passive FTP mode only, allowing automatic fallback to active FTP (PORT/EPRT commands)
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Test FTP behaviorIf possible, observe or simulate an FTP connection through wget to determine whether it uses passive or active mode. This may involve network monitoring or examining wget's debug output when connecting to an FTP server.Affected if wget falls back from passive to active FTP mode during connections, sending PORT or EPRT commands containing the client IP address
A user is affected if running Tails version 1.6 or earlier with wget configured to allow fallback from passive to active FTP mode, which would leak the client IP address through PORT/EPRT commands.
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 dataConfigure wget within Tails to enforce passive FTP mode only, preventing fallback to active FTP that leaks the client IP address through PORT/EPRT commands.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-7665 — 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-2015-7665 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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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.
- 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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