VulnerabilityModified

CVE-2017-17805

HIGH 7.8EPSS 0.44%

Does this matter?

High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.44%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.

Description

The Salsa20 encryption algorithm in the Linux kernel before 4.14.8 does not correctly handle zero-length inputs, allowing a local attacker able to use the AF_ALG-based skcipher interface (CONFIG_CRYPTO_USER_API_SKCIPHER) to cause a denial of service (uninitialized-memory free and kernel crash) or have unspecified other impact by executing a crafted sequence of system calls that use the blkcipher_walk API. Both the generic implementation (crypto/salsa20_generic.c) and x86 implementation (arch/x86/crypto/salsa20_glue.c) of Salsa20 were vulnerable.

CVSS 3.1: 7.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS: 0.44% probability · 38th percentile
Public exploits: None in Exploit-DB
CISA KEV: Not listed
Weakness: CWE-20
Affected: linux/linux kernel · debian/debian linux · opensuse/leap · opensuse project/leap · suse/linux enterprise desktop · suse/linux enterprise server · suse/linux enterprise server for raspberry pi · canonical/ubuntu linux
Source: cve@mitre.org

EPSS trend

EPSS 0.4% since 27 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=ecaaab5649781c5a0effdaf298a925063020500ePatch
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2018-01/msg00006.htmlThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2018-01/msg00007.htmlThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2018-01/msg00008.htmlThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2018-01/msg00014.htmlThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2018-01/msg00016.htmlThird Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/102291Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2948Third Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:3083Third Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:3096Third Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2473Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/ecaaab5649781c5a0effdaf298a925063020500ePatch
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/01/msg00004.htmlThird Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3617-1/Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3617-2/Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3617-3/Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3619-1/Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3619-2/Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3620-1/Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3620-2/Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3632-1/Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-4073Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4082Third Party Advisory
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.14.8Issue Tracking, Release Notes
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=ecaaab5649781c5a0effdaf298a925063020500ePatch
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2018-01/msg00006.htmlThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2018-01/msg00007.htmlThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2018-01/msg00008.htmlThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2018-01/msg00014.htmlThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2018-01/msg00016.htmlThird Party Advisory

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.