CVE-2017-15088
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 · uneditedplugins/preauth/pkinit/pkinit_crypto_openssl.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.15.2 mishandles Distinguished Name (DN) fields, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and application crash) in situations involving untrusted X.509 data, related to the get_matching_data and X509_NAME_oneline_ex functions. NOTE: this has security relevance only in use cases outside of the MIT Kerberos distribution, e.g., the use of get_matching_data in KDC certauth plugin code that is specific to Red Hat.
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 analysisData overflows a fixed-size buffer allocated on the stack, overwriting adjacent stack memory — including saved return addresses — which is the classic route to redirecting execution into attacker-supplied code. Crafted input is all it takes. Remediation is strict length checks, safe bounded string and memory functions, and modern stack-protection mitigations.
General guidance for the stack-based buffer overflow class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
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<= 1.15.2CVSS 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
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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.
dbcve · scopedkrb5 >= 1.15.3 (or current stable release 1.21.x for long-term)
- Check current Kerberos version using 'krb5-config --version' or 'kinit --version'
- Identify all systems running krb5 <= 1.15.2 that use the pkinit preauth plugin
- For production systems: schedule maintenance window for upgrade
- Upgrade krb5 to version 1.15.3 or later using system package manager (e.g., yum update krb5-libs, apt-get install krb5-libs, or equivalent)
- Verify the new version: 'krb5-config --version' should show 1.15.3 or higher
- Restart any Kerberos-dependent services (kadmind, krb5kdc, sshd if using GSSAPI) to load new libraries
- Test authentication flows, especially any using PKINIT/preauth pkinit
- If using Red Hat Enterprise Linux or derivatives, apply vendor security updates via 'yum update krb5' or 'yum update krb5-libs'
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-15088 — 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-2017-15088 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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