CVE-2023-36054

Memory Safety in Mit Kerberos 5 ≤ 1.20.2

Memory Safety

Published

07 August 2023

Modified

21 November 2024

Patch / advisory

View advisory

CVSS Score v3.1 6.5

Click a component to see what it means

Raw vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS Score 0.028 85th percentile

Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-36054 is a medium-severity Access of Uninitialized Pointer (CWE-824) vulnerability in Mit Kerberos 5. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 15% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-40036

Vulnerability Data

lib/kadm5/kadm_rpc_xdr.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) before 1.20.2 and 1.21.x before 1.21.1 frees an uninitialized pointer. A remote authenticated user can trigger a kadmind crash. This occurs because _xdr_kadm5_principal_ent_rec does not validate the relationship between n_key_data and the key_data…

array count.

CWE(s): CWE-824

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.

attack.mitre.org →

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.

attack.mitre.org →

T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement

Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth

Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.

attack.mitre.org →

T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.

attack.mitre.org →

Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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Affected Assets

mit

kerberos 5

1.21 · ≤ 1.20.2

debian

debian linux

10.0

netapp

active iq unified manager

all versions

netapp

clustered data ontap

9.0

netapp

hci

all versions

netapp

management services for element software

all versions

netapp

ontap tools

all versions

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match

prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent uninitialized pointer bugs via coding standards, analysis, and reviews, but eliminating this single weakness only partially fulfills the broader control.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match

finds

Security testing can detect uninitialized pointer usage before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match

prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates practices that reduce uninitialized pointer defects.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match

degrades

Application security requirements can specify pointer initialization rules.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match

degrades

Secure architecture principles discourage unsafe pointer handling.