Dropbear: privilege escalation via unix domain socket forwardings
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Privilege escalation
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · Low · None
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-266.
Summary
A flaw was found in Dropbear. When running in multi-user mode and authenticating users, the dropbear ssh server does the socket forwardings requested by the remote client as root, only switching to the logged-in user upon spawning a shell or performing some operations like reading the user's files. With the recent ability of also using unix domain sockets as the forwarding destination any user able to log in via ssh can connect to any unix socket with the root's credentials, bypassing both file system restrictions and any SO_PEERCRED / SO_PASSCRED checks performed by the peer.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://github.com/mkj/dropbear/ | dropbear | 2024.84 to before 2025.88 | 2025.88 | Patch available | CNA |
- dropbear Vendorhttps://github.com/mkj/dropbear/ Affected 2024.84 to before 2025.88 Fixed in 2025.88 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA dropbear (https://github.com/mkj/dropbear/) Fixed in 2025.88
Vendor assessments
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-14282
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-xqcm-jrw9-wq72
References
Sources
- CVE-2025-14282 · CVE Program
- CVE-2025-14282 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-xqcm-jrw9-wq72 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2025-14282 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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