CVE-2025-38741
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 · uneditedDell Enterprise SONiC OS, version 4.5.0, contains a cryptographic key vulnerability in SSH. An unauthenticated remote attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to unauthorized access to communication.
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 confidenceDell Enterprise SONiC OS version 4.5.0 contains a cryptographic key vulnerability in its SSH implementation. An unauthenticated remote attacker could exploit this flaw to gain unauthorized access to communications by compromising the SSH key material.
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= 4.5.0CVSS 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:3.1/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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Identify the installed Dell Enterprise SONiC OS versionRun 'sonic_version' or check /etc/sonic/sonic_version.yml to retrieve the installed OS versionAffected if The version is exactly 4.5.0
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Verify SSH service is enabledRun 'systemctl is-active ssh' or check if SSH daemon is running via 'systemctl status sshd'Affected if SSH service is active and version 4.5.0 is installed
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Inspect SSH host key configurationCheck /etc/ssh/sshd_config for host key file paths, then list the key files in /etc/ssh/ (such as ssh_host_rsa_key, ssh_host_ecdsa_key, ssh_host_ed25519_key)Affected if SSH host keys exist and version 4.5.0 is running, indicating the vulnerable key material may be present
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Review SSH key generation timestampsUse 'ls -la /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*_key' to check when SSH host keys were createdAffected if Host keys were generated during or shortly after version 4.5.0 installation, suggesting they may be the compromised key material
You are affected if Dell Enterprise SONiC OS version 4.5.0 is installed and SSH service is enabled, as the SSH key material in this version is vulnerable to unauthenticated remote compromise.
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 dataApply vendor patches for CVE-2025-38741 if available; otherwise, regenerate SSH host keys, review key generation procedures, and restrict SSH access to trusted networks until a patch can be applied.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $3,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-38741 — 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-2025-38741 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