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CriticalFix available

libpam-krb5 — security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVAdvisory ID: DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10595

pam-krb5 before 4.9 has a buffer overflow that might cause remote code execution in situations involving supplemental prompting by a Kerberos library. It may overflow a buffer provided by the underlying Kerberos library by a single '\0' byte if an attacker responds to a prompt with an answer of a carefully chosen length. The effect may range from heap corruption to stack corruption depending on the structure of the underlying Kerberos library, with unknown effects but possibly including code execution. This code path is not used for normal authentication, but only when the Kerberos library does supplemental prompting, such as with PKINIT or when using the non-standard no_prompt PAM configuration option.

Products
libpam-krb5
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
4.9-1
CVEs
CVE-2020-10595
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
1 Nov 2026, 12:53 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10595

core-osv · Original source

Published 31 Mar 2020, 13:15 UTC

pam-krb5 before 4.9 has a buffer overflow that might cause remote code execution in situations involving supplemental prompting by a Kerberos library. It may overflow a buffer provided by the underlying Kerberos library by a single '\0' byte if an attacker responds to a prompt with an answer of a carefully chosen length. The effect may range from heap corruption to stack corruption depending on the structure of the underlying Kerberos library, with unknown effects but possibly including code execution. This code path is not used for normal authentication, but only when the Kerberos library does supplemental prompting, such as with PKINIT or when using the non-standard no_prompt PAM configuration option.

osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10595

libpam-krb5

Fixed versions: 4.9-1

libpam-krb5

Fixed versions: 4.9-1

libpam-krb5

Fixed versions: 4.9-1

Complete source record
{
  "id": "96bf411bf3ebb505ef1fb3b5b6d7d06373af5d6de2f840307b0b1a8a18e1975f",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10595",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10595",
    "summary": "pam-krb5 before 4.9 has a buffer overflow that might cause remote code execution in situations involving supplemental prompting by a Kerberos library. It may overflow a buffer provided by the underlying Kerberos library by a single '\\0' byte if an attacker responds to a prompt with an answer of a carefully chosen length. The effect may range from heap corruption to stack corruption depending on the structure of the underlying Kerberos library, with unknown effects but possibly including code execution. This code path is not used for normal authentication, but only when the Kerberos library does supplemental prompting, such as with PKINIT or when using the non-standard no_prompt PAM configuration option.",
    "evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10595",
    "products": [
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "libpam-krb5",
          "evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.9-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "libpam-krb5",
          "evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.9-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "libpam-krb5",
          "evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.9-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      }
    ],
    "severity": "critical",
    "structured": {
      "id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10595",
      "aliases": [
        "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10595"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.9-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "libpam-krb5",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/libpam-krb5?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:12"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10595.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.9-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "libpam-krb5",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/libpam-krb5?arch=source&distro=trixie",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:13"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10595.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.9-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "libpam-krb5",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/libpam-krb5?arch=source&distro=forky",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:14"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10595.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-26T12:01:12.659235961Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "upstream": [
        "CVE-2020-10595"
      ],
      "references": [
        "https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-10595"
      ]
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2020-10595",
        "evidence": "/upstream"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 451507,
  "published_at": "2020-03-31T13:15:13.13+00:00"
}