Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:NCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2023-51385 is a medium-severity OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique NTDS (T1003.003); ranked in the top 3% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
The vulnerability is an OS command injection flaw, tracked as CWE-78, that affects the ssh client in OpenSSH versions prior to 9.6. It occurs when a username or hostname containing shell metacharacters is expanded via certain tokens, allowing the metacharacters to be interpreted by the shell rather than treated literally. An example trigger is a submodule entry inside an untrusted Git repository that supplies a malicious username or hostname.
An attacker can supply a crafted repository or configuration that causes the vulnerable ssh client to process the expansion during operations such as cloning or submodule handling. Successful exploitation yields limited command execution on the client system with no authentication required, corresponding to the CVSS vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N.
Public advisories and vendor patches direct users to upgrade to OpenSSH 9.6 or later; the referenced commit in the portable repository addresses the expansion handling, while distribution lists from Debian and Gentoo provide coordinated update guidance and package backports.
EPSS values have remained in a narrow band near 0.18 with no pronounced post-disclosure climb.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-56106
Vulnerability Data
In ssh in OpenSSH before 9.6, OS command injection might occur if a user name or host name has shell metacharacters, and this name is referenced by an expansion token in certain situations. For example, an untrusted Git repository can…
more
have a submodule with shell metacharacters in a user name or host name.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V1.2.5V1.2.8
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
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's SDLC practices directly require secure coding and input handling that blocks command-injection defects, yet the single broad outcome leaves many specific neutralization vectors and verification gaps unaddressed.
Routine patching/maintenance can remediate known command-injection CVEs in dependencies (partial forward) but does nothing to stop developers from introducing improper neutralization in custom code (none reverse).
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.