CVE-2017-9079

Dropbear before 2017.75 might allow local users to read certain files as root, if the file has the authorized_keys file format with a command= option. This occurs because ~/.ssh/authorized_keys is read with root privileges and symlinks are followed.

Published: 2017-05-19 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-9079 is rated Low Risk (26.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.30%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2017-9079

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 0.13% 0.30% +0.17%
2 2025-03-30 0.21% 0.13% -0.08%
3 2025-03-29 — 0.21% —

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-9079

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.7 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.0 3.6 [email protected]
4.7 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 3.4 6.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-9079

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-9079

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-9079 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (dropbear), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-9079
ubuntu medium CVE-2017-9079 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (dropbear), 22 status rows across 22 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 16, ignored 3, DNE 1, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-9079

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-9079

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
dropbear_ssh_project dropbear_ssh < 2017.75 cpe:2.3:a:dropbear_ssh_project:dropbear_ssh:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-9079

cvelogic Threat Intelligence