CVE-2025-8277
Description
A flaw was found in libssh's handling of key exchange (KEX) processes when a client repeatedly sends incorrect KEX guesses. The library fails to free memory during these rekey operations, which can gradually exhaust system memory. This issue can lead to crashes on the client side, particularly when using libgcrypt, which impacts application stability and availability.
Statement
The Red Hat Product Security team has assessed the severity of this vulnerability as Low.The issue requires an authenticated client to repeatedly initiate key exchanges with incorrect guesses, which leads to memory not being properly released. While this flaw can result in gradual memory exhaustion and potential denial of service (DoS) on the client side, it is not easily exploitable in typical usage scenarios and does not affect servers. The vulnerability does not compromise confidentiality or integrity and poses limited impact on system availability under normal operating conditions.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability. It is strongly advised to apply updated libssh packages once available to prevent memory exhaustion risks on client systems.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 3.1 | N/A | 3.1 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | Low | N/A | Low |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | None |
| Availability Impact | Low | N/A | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Instability; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)
Most memory leaks result in general product reliability problems, but if an attacker can intentionally trigger a memory leak, the attacker might be able to launch a denial of service attack (by crashing or hanging the program) or take advantage of other unexpected program behavior resulting from a low memory condition.
Other
Technical Impact: Reduce Performance
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank Francesco Rollo for reporting this issue.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure what something means? Check out our Security Glossary.
Want to get errata notifications? Sign up here.
