cbcvebase.
CVE-2018-15473
published 2018-08-17

CVE-2018-15473: OpenSSH through 7.7 is prone to a user enumeration vulnerability due to not delaying bailout for an invalid authenticating user until after the packet…

PriorityP262medium5.3CVSS 3.1
AVNACLPRNUINSUCLINAN
EXPLOIT
EPSS
98.63%
99.9th percentile
OpenSSH through 7.7 is prone to a user enumeration vulnerability due to not delaying bailout for an invalid authenticating user until after the packet containing the request has been fully parsed, related to auth2-gss.c, auth2-hostbased.c, and auth2-pubkey.c.

Affected

34 ranges· showing 25
VendorProductVersion rangeFixed in
canonicalubuntu_linux
canonicalubuntu_linux
canonicalubuntu_linux
debiandebian_linux
debiandebian_linux
debiandropbear< dropbear 2018.76-4 (bookworm)dropbear 2018.76-4 (bookworm)
debianopenssh< openssh 1:7.7p1-4 (bookworm)openssh 1:7.7p1-4 (bookworm)
dropbear_ssh_projectdropbear_ssh<= 2018.76
dropbear_ssh_projectdropbear_ssh>= 0 < 2018.76-42018.76-4
dropbear_ssh_projectdropbear_ssh>= 0 < 2018.76-42018.76-4
dropbear_ssh_projectdropbear_ssh>= 0 < 2018.76-42018.76-4
dropbear_ssh_projectdropbear_ssh>= 0 < 2018.76-42018.76-4
netapponcommand_unified_manager>= 9.4
netappstorage_replication_adapter>= 7.2
netappvasa_provider>= 7.2
netappvirtual_storage_console>= 7.2
openbsdopenssh<= 7.7
openbsdopenssh>= 0 < 1:7.7p1-41:7.7p1-4
openbsdopenssh>= 0 < 1:7.7p1-41:7.7p1-4
openbsdopenssh>= 0 < 1:7.7p1-41:7.7p1-4
openbsdopenssh>= 0 < 1:7.7p1-41:7.7p1-4
openbsdopenssh>= 0 < 1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.111:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.11
openbsdopenssh>= 0 < 1:7.2p2-4ubuntu2.61:7.2p2-4ubuntu2.6
openbsdopenssh>= 0 < 1:7.6p1-4ubuntu0.11:7.6p1-4ubuntu0.1
openbsdopenssh>= 0 < 1:7.6p1-4ubuntu0.51:7.6p1-4ubuntu0.5

Detection & IOCsextracted from sources · hover to see the quote

port22/TCP
urlhttps://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/45233
otherauxiliary/scanner/ssh/ssh_enumusers
otherSSH-(.*)-OpenSSH_[^\r]+
yara
regex: '(?i)OpenSSH'
  • CVE-2018-15473 exploits a malformed SSH_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST packet using public key authentication; the attack works by overwriting the MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT handler to omit a boolean field, causing OpenSSH to respond differently for valid vs. invalid usernames.
  • On some OpenSSH versions, invalid users are logged while valid users are not during the enumeration attempt — monitor SSH auth logs for asymmetric logging patterns (failed auths with no corresponding valid-user log entries).
  • The exploit uses paramiko to generate a throwaway RSA key and attempt auth_publickey with a malformed packet; detect rapid successive SSH public-key authentication attempts from a single source IP, especially with freshly generated ephemeral keys.
  • Affected versions are OpenSSH < 7.7; fingerprint banner SSH-(.*)-OpenSSH_[^\r]+ on port 22 to identify potentially vulnerable hosts.
  • Post-exploitation indicator: presence of a 'cluster-crack.pot' file in the filesystem root (/) containing cracked Linux shadow hashes, indicating john the ripper was used to crack /etc/shadow.
  • Post-exploitation indicator: hidden files .payload.sh and .encrypted_csv.data downloaded from a remote GitLab repository into the working directory; monitor for wget retrieving hidden-filename payloads from gitlab.com.
  • C2 exfiltration via bash TCP pseudo-device: monitor for processes writing to /dev/tcp/<IP>/<PORT> as a covert channel to send data to attacker-controlled infrastructure.
  • ·The username enumeration vulnerability (CVE-2018-15473) requires public key authentication to be enabled on the target SSH server; if only password authentication is permitted, the malformed-packet vector does not apply (timing attack variant may still work).
  • ·A similar but distinct user enumeration vulnerability exists in Dropbear SSH (through 2018.76) as CVE-2018-15599; do not conflate the two — they affect unrelated codebases.
  • ·The timing-attack variant of this enumeration technique may produce false positives/negatives depending on server load and network latency; results marked YMMV by the Metasploit module author.

CVSS provenance

nvdv3.15.3MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
nvdv2.05.0MEDIUMAV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
osv7.5HIGH
vendor_ubuntu7.5HIGH
vendor_debian5.3MEDIUM
vendor_redhat5.3MEDIUM
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