CVE-2017-12169
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 · uneditedIt was found that FreeIPA 4.2.0 and later could disclose password hashes to users having the 'System: Read Stage Users' permission. A remote, authenticated attacker could potentially use this flaw to disclose the password hashes belonging to Stage Users. This security issue does not result in disclosure of password hashes belonging to active standard users. NOTE: some developers feel that this report is a suggestion for a design change to Stage User activation, not a statement of a vulnerability.
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 · moderate confidenceFreeIPA 4.2.0 and later contains an information disclosure vulnerability where users granted the 'System: Read Stage Users' permission can view password hashes belonging to Stage Users. This occurs because the default permission allows reading stage user entries which include password hash attributes, enabling a remote authenticated attacker to potentially obtain these hashes.
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>= 4.2.0CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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 FreeIPA versionRun 'ipa --version' or check the installed package version (e.g., 'rpm -q freeipa-server')Affected if The installed version is 4.2.0 or later
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Verify permission assignmentRun 'ipa permission-find "System: Read Stage Users"' to see if this permission exists and to which roles it is assignedAffected if The permission is defined and assigned to any role that non-admin users possess
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Identify users with this permissionRun 'ipa role-find' and inspect which roles contain the 'System: Read Stage Users' permission, then check user membership with 'ipa user-find' and 'ipa group-find' for those rolesAffected if Any user or group (other than fully privileged admins) is granted a role containing this permission
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Check for existing stage usersRun 'ipa stageuser-find' to list any stage users in the systemAffected if Stage users exist in the directory
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Confirm password hash attribute exposureAs a user with the 'System: Read Stage Users' permission (not admin), run 'ipa stageuser-show <stage_user>' and check if userPassword or kerberos keys are visible in the outputAffected if Password hash attributes (userPassword, krbPrincipalKey, etc.) are returned in query results
A user is affected if they run FreeIPA 4.2.0 or later, have been granted a role containing the 'System: Read Stage Users' permission, and stage users exist in the directory with exposed password hash attributes.
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 dataRestrict or modify the 'System: Read Stage Users' permission to exclude password hash attributes from query results, or implement attribute-level access control to prevent password hash disclosure for stage user entries.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 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 $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-12169 — 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-2017-12169 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data