In Libreswan 3.27 an assertion failure can lead to a pluto IKE daemon restart.
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.0 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-476.
Summary
In Libreswan 3.27 an assertion failure can lead to a pluto IKE daemon restart. An attacker can trigger a NULL pointer dereference by initiating an IKEv2 IKE_SA_INIT exchange, followed by a bogus INFORMATIONAL exchange instead of the normallly expected IKE_AUTH exchange. This affects send_v2N_spi_response_from_state() in programs/pluto/ikev2_send.c that will then trigger a NULL pointer dereference leading to a restart of libreswan.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | all versions | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- — Vendor— Affected all versions Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 1
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:libreswan:libreswan:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | before 3.28 | Vulnerable | The Libreswan Project |
- cpe:2.3:a:libreswan:libreswan:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions before 3.28 Vulnerable ·The Libreswan Project
Remediation
Red Hat 1 advisory
- RHSA-2019:3391 Released 2019-11-05 · Red Hat rating Lowlibreswan security and bug fix update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) libreswan-3.29-6.el8
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) | Fixed | RHSA-2019:3391 |
Not affected: 3 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2019-12312
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-mg44-55g8-hfpm
References
More The Libreswan Project Libreswan vulnerabilities
- TI-2023-09114 Libreswan 4.9 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (assert failure and… CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
- TI-2013-05949 Race condition in the libreswan.spec files for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Fedora… CVSS 2.0HIGH 9.3
- TI-2023-02152 Uncontrolled resource consumption in libreswan CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-37395 IKEv2 Denial of Service via RSA-SHA1 (PKCS#1 RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5) authentication payload CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.1
- TI-2026-37394 IKEv1 Denial of Service via RSA-SHA1 (PKCS#1 Version 1.5 Encrypted) authentication payload CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.1
- TI-2023-14401 pluto in Libreswan before 4.11 allows a denial of service (responder SPI mishandling and… CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
Sources
- CVE-2019-12312 · CVE Program
- CVE-2019-12312 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-mg44-55g8-hfpm · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2019-12312 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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