Description

The Qualys Threat Research Unit (TRU) uncovered a new vulnerability in the OpenSSH tool, tracked as CVE-2023-38408, that can be remotely abused to run arbitrary commands on impacted servers under certain conditions. OpenSSH is a well-known remote login tool that uses the SSH protocol to encrypt all traffic to protect against eavesdropping, network hijacking, and other threats. The flaw has been addressed, and it affects all versions of 'OpenSSH before 9.3p2'. The availability of specific libraries on the victim system, as well as the redirection of the SSH authentication agent to an attacker-controlled workstation, are required for successful exploitation. The SSH agent is a background tool that stores users' keys and allows remote logins to servers without requiring them to enter their password multiple times. Furthermore, experts stated that they were able to develop a viable proof-of-concept (PoC) against the default Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 and 21.10 installations, and that additional installations are equivalently unsafe.