CVE-2026-42189 | Russh: Pre-auth DoS via unbounded allocation in keyboard-interactive auth

Exp

Russh is a Rust SSH client & server library. Prior to version 0.60.1, a pre-authentication denial-of-service vulnerability exists in the server's keyboard-interactive authentication handler. A malicious client can crash any russh-based server that implements keyboard-interactive auth (e.g., for 2FA/TOTP) with a single malformed packet, requiring no credentials. This issue has been patched in version 0.60.1.

Published: 2026-05-08 Last update: 2026-05-14 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-42189 is rated Exploit Available (59.2/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.19%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-42189

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-42189

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 2026-05-15 0.08% 0.19% +0.10%
2 2026-05-09 — 0.08% —

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-42189

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-42189

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-42189

GHSA-f5v4-2wr6-hqmg · Severity: high · Ecosystem: rust — russh has pre-auth DoS via unbounded allocation in its keyboard-interactive auth handler

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-42189

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
russh_project russh < 0.60.1 cpe:2.3:a:russh_project:russh:*:*:*:*:*:rust:*:*
warpgate_project warpgate < 0.23.1 cpe:2.3:a:warpgate_project:warpgate:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-42189

cvelogic Threat Intelligence