OpenSSH portable 4.1 on SUSE Linux, and possibly other platforms and versions, and possibly under limited configurations, allows remote attackers to determine valid usernames via timing discrepancies in which responses take longer for valid usernames than invalid ones, as demonstrated by sshtime. NOTE: as of 20061014, it appears that this issue is dependent on the use of manually-set passwords that causes delays when processing /etc/shadow due to an increased number of rounds.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2006-5229 is rated High Exploit Risk (61.2/100): CVSS Low severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 56.63%, 98th percentile). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.44% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
| EDB-ID | Source | Kind | Published | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3303 | exploit_db | edb | 2007-02-13 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
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 | 2026-03-04 | 55.19% | 56.63% | +1.44% |
| 2 | 2026-03-01 | 56.63% | 55.19% | -1.44% |
| 3 | 2026-02-04 | — | 56.63% | — |
Full EPSS history (37 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.6 | 2.0 | LOW |
|
4.9 | 2.9 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
alpine
|
— | CVE-2006-5229: no source package rows; 0 state rows across 0 repos (none); fixed 0, open 0. | https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2006-5229 |
redhat
|
— | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2006-5229 |
suse
|
medium | — | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2006-5229/ |
ubuntu
|
negligible | CVE-2006-5229 negligible priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (openssh), 4 status rows across 4 suites (dapper, edgy, feisty, upstream): ignored 4. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2006-5229 |
Red Hat has been unable to reproduce this flaw and believes that the reporter was experiencing behavior specific to his environment. We will not be releasing update to address this issue.