Certificate SystemApplication · Redhat

CVE-2017-7509

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-07-26
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 8.1.20-1 or later.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
An input validation error was found in Red Hat Certificate System's handling of client provided certificates before 8.1.20-1. If the certreq field is not present in a certificate an assertion error is triggered causing a denial of service.

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 confidence

Red Hat Certificate System before 8.1.20-1 lacks proper input validation when processing client-provided certificates. When a certificate lacks the certreq field, the system triggers an assertion error rather than gracefully handling the missing field, causing a denial of service condition.

MitigationUpgrade to Red Hat Certificate System 8.1.20-1 or later which includes proper validation for the certreq field. Alternatively, implement input validation to check for certreq field presence before processing certificates.

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
Certificate SystemApplication
Affected:< 8.1.20-1

CVSS 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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Red Hat Certificate System is installed
    Check for the presence of Red Hat Certificate System components on the host using system package managers or installed product listings
    Affected if The product is present on the system
  2. Identify the installed version of Red Hat Certificate System
    Use system commands or configuration tools to retrieve the current version number of the Red Hat Certificate System installation
    Affected if The version number returned is less than 8.1.20-1
  3. Verify the system accepts client-provided certificates
    Check whether the Certificate System is configured to accept and process client-submitted certificates, typically through its CA or RA service configuration
    Affected if The system accepts certificates from clients without additional validation layers

A system is affected if it runs Red Hat Certificate System version earlier than 8.1.20-1 and is configured to accept client-provided certificates, as the missing certreq field will trigger an assertion error causing denial of service.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 8.1.20-1 or later
Fixed in 8.1.20-1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Red Hat Certificate System 8.1.20-1 or later which includes proper validation for the certreq field. Alternatively, implement input validation to check for certreq field presence before processing certificates.

Fix this in Certificate System Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,380
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,808.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-7509 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-7509 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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