Microsoft OpenSSH for Windows Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Security Vulnerability

Released: Oct 8, 2024

Assigning CNA
Microsoft
CVE.org link
CVE-2024-38029
Impact
Remote Code Execution
Max Severity
Important
Weakness
CVSS Source
Microsoft
Vector String
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Please see Common Vulnerability Scoring System for more information on the definition of these metrics.

Exploitability

The following table provides an exploitability assessment for this vulnerability at the time of original publication.

Publicly disclosed
No
Exploited
No
Exploitability assessment
Exploitation Less Likely

FAQ

According to the CVSS metric, the attack complexity is high (AC:H). What does that mean for this vulnerability?

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires multiple conditions to be met, such as specific application behavior, user actions, manipulation of parameters passed to a function, and impersonation of an integrity level token.

According to the CVSS metric, user interaction is required (UI:R). What interaction would the user have to do?

Exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to remote into a server that is controlled by an attacker, which could then allow the server to execute a command on the user's machine without their consent. This scenario assumes that the user has the ability to remote into the server and that the server has been compromised to execute such commands upon connection.

How could an attacker exploit this vulnerability?

An attacker could remotely load a malicious DLL onto a machine where the ssh-agent service is launched with the -Oallow-remote-pkcs11 option, which could lead to remote code execution.

This vulnerability arises because the ssh-pkcs11-helper.exe is configured to allow remote DLL loading, which is not intended for arbitrary remote libraries but rather for pkcs providers already present on the remote machine.

According to the CVSS metric, the attack vector is network (AV:N) and the user interaction is required (UI:R). What is the target context of the remote code execution?

This attack requires a client to connect to a malicious server, and that could allow the attacker to gain code execution on the client.

Acknowledgements

  • DarkNavy
Microsoft recognizes the efforts of those in the security community who help us protect customers through coordinated vulnerability disclosure. See Acknowledgements for more information.

Security Updates

To determine the support lifecycle for your software, see the Microsoft Support Lifecycle.

Release date Descending

Disclaimer

The information provided in the Microsoft Knowledge Base is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Microsoft disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall Microsoft Corporation or its suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits or special damages, even if Microsoft Corporation or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages so the foregoing limitation may not apply.

Revisions

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