CVE-2023-36054

lib/kadm5/kadm_rpc_xdr.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) before 1.20.2 and 1.21.x before 1.21.1 frees an uninitialized pointer. A remote authenticated user can trigger a kadmind crash. This occurs because _xdr_kadm5_principal_ent_rec does not validate the relationship between n_key_data and the key_data array count.

Published: 2023-08-07 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-36054 is rated Moderate Risk (53.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.10%). 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-2023-36054

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 2026-06-03 1.03% 1.10% +0.07%
2 2026-05-09 0.65% 1.03% +0.38%
3 2026-04-19 — 0.65% —

Full EPSS history (22 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-36054

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-36054

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-36054

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2023-36054: 1 source package rows (krb5); 2 state rows across 2 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main); fixed 2, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-36054
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-36054 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-2023-36054
gentoo normal CVE-2023-36054: 1 GLSA(s) (202405-11), 1 atom(s) (app-crypt/mit-krb5); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-36054
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-36054
suse high CVE-2023-36054 severity important: SUSE including 395 source package names (0.23.0.3.2.527:krb5-1.19.2-150300.13.1, 1.11.9.0.4.7.1:krb5-1.19.2-150300.13.1, …), 882 product×package rows across 267 product lines (Container bci/bci-init, Container bci/bci-sle15-kernel-module-devel, … (267 product lines)): Fixed 696, Known Affected 170, Known Not Affected 16. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-36054/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-36054 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (krb5), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 7, not-affected 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-36054

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-36054

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
mit kerberos_5 < 1.20.2 cpe:2.3:a:mit:kerberos_5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mit kerberos_5 1.21 cpe:2.3:a:mit:kerberos_5:1.21:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
mit kerberos_5 1.21 cpe:2.3:a:mit:kerberos_5:1.21:beta1:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp active_iq_unified_manager — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:active_iq_unified_manager:-:*:*:*:*:vmware_vsphere:*:*
netapp clustered_data_ontap 9.0 cpe:2.3:a:netapp:clustered_data_ontap:9.0:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp hci — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:hci:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp management_services_for_element_software — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:management_services_for_element_software:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp ontap_tools — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:ontap_tools:-:*:*:*:*:vmware_vsphere:*:*

References for CVE-2023-36054

cvelogic Threat Intelligence