sshd in OpenSSH 3.5p1, when PermitRootLogin is disabled, immediately closes the TCP connection after a root login attempt with the correct password, but leaves the connection open after an attempt with an incorrect password, which makes it easier for remote attackers to guess the password by observing the connection state, a different vulnerability than CVE-2003-0190. NOTE: it could be argued that in most environments, this does not cross privilege boundaries without requiring leverage of a separate vulnerability.

According to its banner, the remote SSH server is running a version of OpenSSH older than 3.7.1. Such versions are vulnerable to a flaw in the buffer management functions that might allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands on this host.

An exploit for this issue is rumored to exist.

Note that several distributions patched this hole without changing the version number of OpenSSH. Since NNM solely relied on the banner of the remote SSH server to perform this check, this might be a false positive. 

If you are running a RedHat host, make sure that the command :

rpm -q openssh-server

returns :

openssh-server-3.1p1-13 (RedHat 7.x) openssh-server-3.4p1-7 (RedHat 8.0) openssh-server-3.5p1-11 (RedHat 9)

According to its banner, the remote host is running a version of OpenSSH prior to 4.0.  Versions of OpenSSH earlier than 4.0 are affected by an information disclosure vulnerability because the application stores hostnames, IP addresses, and keys in plaintext in the 'known_hosts' file.  A local attacker, exploiting this flaw, could gain access to sensitive information that could be used in subsequent attacks.

The version of SunSSH running on the remote host has an information disclosure vulnerability.  A design flaw in the SSH specification could allow a man-in-the-middle attacker to recover up to 32 bits of plaintext from an SSH-protected connection in the standard configuration.  An attacker could exploit this to gain access to sensitive information.

Note that this version of SunSSH is also prone to several additional issues but Nessus did not test for them.

According to its banner, the remote SSH server is running a version of OpenSSH older than 3.7.1.  Such versions are vulnerable to a flaw in the buffer management functions that might allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands on this host.

An exploit for this issue is rumored to exist.

Note that several distributions patched this hole without changing the version number of OpenSSH.  Since Nessus solely relied on the banner of the remote SSH server to perform this check, this might be a false positive. 

If you are running a RedHat host, make sure that the command :

  rpm -q openssh-server

returns :

  openssh-server-3.1p1-13 (RedHat 7.x)   openssh-server-3.4p1-7  (RedHat 8.0)   openssh-server-3.5p1-11 (RedHat 9)

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
701168	OpenSSH < 3.7.1 Multiple Vulnerabilities	Nessus Network Monitor	SSH	critical
44075	OpenSSH < 4.0 known_hosts Plaintext Host Information Disclosure	Nessus	Misc.	low
55992	SunSSH < 1.1.1 / 1.3 CBC Plaintext Disclosure	Nessus	Misc.	critical
11837	OpenSSH < 3.7.1 Multiple Vulnerabilities	Nessus	Gain a shell remotely	critical

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2004-2760

critical

Tenable Plugins

critical

low

critical

critical