CVE-2003-0139

Certain weaknesses in the implementation of version 4 of the Kerberos protocol (krb4) in the krb5 distribution, when triple-DES keys are used to key krb4 services, allow an attacker to create krb4 tickets for unauthorized principals using a cut-and-paste attack and "ticket splicing."

Published: 2003-03-24 Last update: 2026-04-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2003-0139 is rated Moderate Risk (60.8/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 4.28%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2003-0139

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 4.95% 4.28% -0.66%
2 2025-03-30 7.90% 4.95% -2.96%
3 2025-03-29 7.90%

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2003-0139

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
10.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2003-0139

OS Trackers for CVE-2003-0139

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2003-0139 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (krb5), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2003-0139
redhat high https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2003-0139

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2003-0139

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
mit kerberos 4 cpe:2.3:a:mit:kerberos:4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2003-0139

cvelogic Threat Intelligence