CVE-2017-9079

Publication date 19 May 2017

Last updated 26 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Cvss 3 Severity Score

Description

Dropbear before 2017.75 might allow local users to read certain files as root, if the file has the authorized_keys file format with a command= option. This occurs because ~/.ssh/authorized_keys is read with root privileges and symlinks are followed.

Status

Show unmaintained releases

Package	Ubuntu Release	Status
dropbear	26.04 LTS resolute	Not affected
	25.10 questing	Not affected
	25.04 plucky	Not affected
	24.10 oracular	Not affected
	24.04 LTS noble	Not affected
	23.10 mantic	Not affected
	23.04 lunar	Not affected
	22.10 kinetic	Not affected
	22.04 LTS jammy	Not affected
	21.10 impish	Not affected
	21.04 hirsute	Not affected
	20.10 groovy	Not affected
	20.04 LTS focal	Not affected
	19.10 eoan	Not affected
	19.04 disco	Not affected
	18.10 cosmic	Not affected
	18.04 LTS bionic	Not affected
	17.10 artful	Ignored end of life
	17.04 zesty	Ignored end of life
	16.10 yakkety	Ignored end of life
	16.04 LTS xenial	Ignored end of standard support, was needed
	14.04 LTS trusty	Not in release

Patch details

For informational purposes only. We recommend not to cherry-pick updates. How can I get the fixes?

Package	Patch details
dropbear	Upstream: https://secure.ucc.asn.au/hg/dropbear/rev/0d889b068123

Severity score breakdown

CVSS version: CVSS v3.0

Base score 4.7 · Medium

Base metrics

Parameter	Value
Attack vector	Local
Attack complexity	High
Privileges required	Low
User interaction	None
Scope	Unchanged
Confidentiality impact	High
Integrity impact	None
Availability impact	None

Scores

Parameter	Value
Base score	4.7 · Medium
Exploitability score	-
Impact score	-

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N