CVE-2025-54546
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 · uneditedOn affected platforms, restricted users could use SSH port forwarding to access host-internal services
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 confidenceThis vulnerability allows restricted or low-privilege users to bypass intended access controls by leveraging SSH port forwarding capabilities to reach internal host services that should be protected from their access level.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify SSH daemon is runningCheck if the sshd process is active: systemctl status sshd (systemd) or service ssh status (SysV init)Affected if SSH server is running and accessible to untrusted or low-privilege users
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Check AllowTcpForwarding configurationExamine /etc/ssh/sshd_config for the AllowTcpForwarding directive: grep -i AllowTcpForwarding /etc/ssh/sshd_configAffected if AllowTcpForwarding is set to yes or not explicitly set (defaults to yes in most OpenSSH versions)
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Identify users with SSH accessReview /etc/passwd for user accounts with valid login shells, or run: getent passwd | grep -v '/nologin\|false$'Affected if Untrusted or low-privilege users have valid SSH accounts capable of authenticating to the server
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Verify port forwarding restrictions for specific usersCheck sshd_config for Match user or Match group blocks that restrict TCP forwarding: grep -A5 'Match' /etc/ssh/sshd_configAffected if No Match blocks exist that specifically restrict AllowTcpForwarding=no for untrusted users or groups
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Audit SSH key-based or password authenticationReview /home/<user>/.ssh/authorized_keys files and SSH configuration for authentication methods permitted for low-privilege accountsAffected if Unrestricted authentication methods allow low-privilege users to establish SSH sessions and use port forwarding capabilities
The environment is affected if an SSH server is running with AllowTcpForwarding enabled (default) and untrusted or low-privilege users can authenticate to it, allowing them to forward ports to internal services.
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 SSH port forwarding for untrusted users by configuring AllowTcpForwarding=no or limiting it to specific users/groups in sshd_config, and verify that network segmentation prevents lateral movement to sensitive internal services.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-54546 — 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-2025-54546 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
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