CVE-2023-42818
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 · uneditedJumpServer is an open source bastion host. When users enable MFA and use a public key for authentication, the Koko SSH server does not verify the corresponding SSH private key. An attacker could exploit a vulnerability by utilizing a disclosed public key to attempt brute-force authentication against the SSH service This issue has been patched in versions 3.6.5 and 3.5.6. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.
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 analysisThe mechanism that verifies who a user is can be side-stepped or fooled, letting an attacker act as someone they're not. Everything built on top of that identity then becomes untrustworthy. Fixing it means hardening the full authentication flow, including edge cases, tokens, and secondary paths.
General guidance for the improper authentication 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< 3.5.6>= 3.6.0, < 3.6.5CVSS 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 · scoped3.5.63.6.5
3.5.6 (for 3.5.x branch) or 3.6.5 (for 3.6.x branch)
- 1. Identify your current JumpServer version by checking the version file or using: docker ps (for containerized deployments) or jumpserver --version (for direct installations
- 2. For containerized deployments: Stop the JumpServer containers and backup all persistent data volumes including database, redis, and /opt/jumpserver directory
- 3. For direct installations: Backup the /opt/jumpserver directory and database
- 4. For containerized deployments: Update your docker-compose.yml or relevant deployment configuration to use version 3.6.5 (or 3.5.6 for the 3.5.x branch)
- 5. For direct installations: Run the official upgrade script or package manager update to install version 3.5.6 or 3.6.5
- 6. After upgrade completes, verify the JumpServer services are running: docker-compose ps (or systemctl status jumpserver)
- 7. Verify the fix by checking that SSH key authentication now properly validates the corresponding private key when MFA is enabled
- 8. Test login functionality with MFA and public key authentication to confirm the vulnerability is resolved
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-42818 — 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-2023-42818 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
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.
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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data