SOC status:Duty analyst on shift

UK Cyber Defence
VulnerabilityModified

CVE-2023-3326

In a non-default FreeBSD installation that leverages pam_krb5 for authentication and does not have a keytab provisioned, an attacker that is able to control both the password and the KDC responses can return a valid tgt, allowing authentication to occur…

CRITICAL 9.8EPSS 1.10%

Does this matter?

High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (1.10%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.

Description

pam_krb5 authenticates a user by essentially running kinit with the password, getting a ticket-granting ticket (tgt) from the Kerberos KDC (Key Distribution Center) over the network, as a way to verify the password. However, if a keytab is not provisioned on the system, pam_krb5 has no way to validate the response from the KDC, and essentially trusts the tgt provided over the network as being valid. In a non-default FreeBSD installation that leverages pam_krb5 for authentication and does not have a keytab provisioned, an attacker that is able to control both the password and the KDC responses can return a valid tgt, allowing authentication to occur for any user on the system.

CVSS 3.1
9.8 CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS
1.10% probability · 65th percentile
Public exploits
None in Exploit-DB
CISA KEV
Not listed
Weakness
CWE-303, CWE-287
Affected
freebsd/freebsd
Source
secteam@freebsd.org
EPSS trend
0%3%5%26 October 2026: 1.10%26 October 202626 October 2026

EPSS 1.1% since 26 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

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