CVE-2025-14282
When running in multi-user mode and authenticating users, the dropbear ssh server does the socket forwardings requested by the remote client as root, only switching to the logged-in user upon spawning a shell or performing some operations like reading…
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.40%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
A flaw was found in Dropbear. When running in multi-user mode and authenticating users, the dropbear ssh server does the socket forwardings requested by the remote client as root, only switching to the logged-in user upon spawning a shell or performing some operations like reading the user's files. With the recent ability of also using unix domain sockets as the forwarding destination any user able to log in via ssh can connect to any unix socket with the root's credentials, bypassing both file system restrictions and any SO_PEERCRED / SO_PASSCRED checks performed by the peer.
- CVSS 3.1
- 5.4 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
- EPSS
- 0.40% probability · 35th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-266
- Source
- patrick@puiterwijk.org
EPSS 0.4% 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
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-14282
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2420052
- https://github.com/mkj/dropbear/pull/391
- https://github.com/mkj/dropbear/pull/394
- https://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/pipermail/dropbear/2025q4/002390.html
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/12/16/4
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/12/17/1
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.