An issue was discovered in Libreswan 3.x and 4.x before 4.12. When an IKEv1 ISAKMP SA Informational Exchange packet contains a Delete/Notify payload followed by further Notifies that act on the ISAKMP SA, such as a duplicated Delete/Notify message, a NULL pointer dereference on the deleted state causes the pluto daemon to crash and restart.

The remote NewStart CGSL host, running version MAIN 7.02, has libreswan packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities:

  - An issue was discovered in Libreswan 3.x and 4.x before 4.12. When an IKEv1 ISAKMP SA Informational     Exchange packet contains a Delete/Notify payload followed by further Notifies that act on the ISAKMP SA,     such as a duplicated Delete/Notify message, a NULL pointer dereference on the deleted state causes the     pluto daemon to crash and restart. (CVE-2023-38712)

  - An issue was discovered in Libreswan before 4.12. When an IKEv2 Child SA REKEY packet contains an invalid     IPsec protocol ID number of 0 or 1, an error notify INVALID_SPI is sent back. The notify payload's     protocol ID is copied from the incoming packet, but the code that verifies outgoing packets fails an     assertion that the protocol ID must be ESP (2) or AH(3) and causes the pluto daemon to crash and restart.
    NOTE: the earliest affected version is 3.20. (CVE-2023-38710)

  - An issue was discovered in Libreswan before 4.12. When an IKEv1 Quick Mode connection configured with     ID_IPV4_ADDR or ID_IPV6_ADDR receives an IDcr payload with ID_FQDN, a NULL pointer dereference causes a     crash and restart of the pluto daemon. NOTE: the earliest affected version is 4.6. (CVE-2023-38711)

  - The Libreswan Project was notified of an issue causing libreswan to restart when using IKEv1 without     specifying an esp= line. When the peer requests AES-GMAC, libreswan's default proposal handler causes an     assertion failure and crashes and restarts. IKEv2 connections are not affected. (CVE-2024-3652)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ALINUX3-SA-2024:0039 advisory.

    Package updates are available for Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 that fix the following vulnerabilities:

    CVE-2023-2295:
    A vulnerability was found in the libreswan library. This security issue occurs when an IKEv1 Aggressive     Mode packet is received with only unacceptable crypto algorithms, and the response packet is not sent with     a zero responder SPI. When a subsequent packet is received where the sender reuses the libreswan responder     SPI as its own initiator SPI, the pluto daemon state machine crashes. No remote code execution is     possible. This CVE exists because of a CVE-2023-30570 security regression for libreswan package in Red Hat     Enterprise Linux 8.8 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2.

    CVE-2023-30570:
    pluto in Libreswan before 4.11 allows a denial of service (responder SPI mishandling and daemon crash) via     unauthenticated IKEv1 Aggressive Mode packets. The earliest affected version is 3.28.

    CVE-2023-38710:
    An issue was discovered in Libreswan before 4.12. When an IKEv2 Child SA REKEY packet contains an invalid     IPsec protocol ID number of 0 or 1, an error notify INVALID_SPI is sent back. The notify payload's     protocol ID is copied from the incoming packet, but the code that verifies outgoing packets fails an     assertion that the protocol ID must be ESP (2) or AH(3) and causes the pluto daemon to crash and restart.
    NOTE: the earliest affected version is 3.20.

    CVE-2023-38711:
    An issue was discovered in Libreswan before 4.12. When an IKEv1 Quick Mode connection configured with     ID_IPV4_ADDR or ID_IPV6_ADDR receives an IDcr payload with ID_FQDN, a NULL pointer dereference causes a     crash and restart of the pluto daemon. NOTE: the earliest affected version is 4.6.

    CVE-2023-38712:
    An issue was discovered in Libreswan 3.x and 4.x before 4.12. When an IKEv1 ISAKMP SA Informational     Exchange packet contains a Delete/Notify payload followed by further Notifies that act on the ISAKMP SA,     such as a duplicated Delete/Notify message, a NULL pointer dereference on the deleted state causes the     pluto daemon to crash and restart.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Alibaba Cloud Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - An issue was discovered in Libreswan 3.x and 4.x before 4.12. When an IKEv1 ISAKMP SA Informational     Exchange packet contains a Delete/Notify payload followed by further Notifies that act on the ISAKMP SA,     such as a duplicated Delete/Notify message, a NULL pointer dereference on the deleted state causes the     pluto daemon to crash and restart. (CVE-2023-38712)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 9 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2025:0309 advisory.

    Libreswan is an implementation of IPsec and IKE for Linux. IPsec is the Internet Protocol Security and     uses strong cryptography to provide both authentication and encryption services. These services allow you     to build secure tunnels through untrusted networks such as virtual private network (VPN).

    Security Fix(es):

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv1 Quick Mode ID causes restart (CVE-2023-38711)

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv2 REKEY proposal causes restart (CVE-2023-38710)

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv1 repeat IKE SA delete causes crash and restart (CVE-2023-38712)

    For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and     other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 9 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2024:10594 advisory.

    Libreswan is an implementation of IPsec and IKE for Linux. IPsec is the Internet Protocol Security and     uses strong cryptography to provide both authentication and encryption services. These services allow you     to build secure tunnels through untrusted networks such as virtual private network (VPN).

    Security Fix(es):

    * libreswan: remote DoS via crafted TS payload with an incorrect selector length (CVE-2023-23009)

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv1 Quick Mode ID causes restart (CVE-2023-38711)

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv2 REKEY proposal causes restart (CVE-2023-38710)

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv1 repeat IKE SA delete causes crash and restart (CVE-2023-38712)

    * libreswan: Missing PreSharedKey for connection can cause crash (CVE-2024-2357)

    For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and     other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The version of libreswan installed on the remote CBL Mariner 2.0 host is prior to tested version. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the CVE-2023-38712 advisory.

  - An issue was discovered in Libreswan 3.x and 4.x before 4.12. When an IKEv1 ISAKMP SA Informational     Exchange packet contains a Delete/Notify payload followed by further Notifies that act on the ISAKMP SA,     such as a duplicated Delete/Notify message, a NULL pointer dereference on the deleted state causes the     pluto daemon to crash and restart. (CVE-2023-38712)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote CentOS Linux 9 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the libreswan-4.12-1.el9 build changelog.

  - An issue was discovered in Libreswan before 4.12. When an IKEv2 Child SA REKEY packet contains an invalid     IPsec protocol ID number of 0 or 1, an error notify INVALID_SPI is sent back. The notify payload's     protocol ID is copied from the incoming packet, but the code that verifies outgoing packets fails an     assertion that the protocol ID must be ESP (2) or AH(3) and causes the pluto daemon to crash and restart.
    NOTE: the earliest affected version is 3.20. (CVE-2023-38710)

  - An issue was discovered in Libreswan before 4.12. When an IKEv1 Quick Mode connection configured with     ID_IPV4_ADDR or ID_IPV6_ADDR receives an IDcr payload with ID_FQDN, a NULL pointer dereference causes a     crash and restart of the pluto daemon. NOTE: the earliest affected version is 4.6. (CVE-2023-38711)

  - An issue was discovered in Libreswan 3.x and 4.x before 4.12. When an IKEv1 ISAKMP SA Informational     Exchange packet contains a Delete/Notify payload followed by further Notifies that act on the ISAKMP SA,     such as a duplicated Delete/Notify message, a NULL pointer dereference on the deleted state causes the     pluto daemon to crash and restart. (CVE-2023-38712)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Oracle Linux 8 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2023-7052 advisory.

    - Update to 4.12 to fix CVE-2023-38710, CVE-2023-38711, CVE-2023-38712

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Oracle Linux 9 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2023-6549 advisory.

    - Update to 4.12 to fix CVE-2023-38710, CVE-2023-38711, CVE-2023-38712
    - Just bumping up the version to include bugs for CVE-2023-2295. There is no       code fix for it. Fix for it is including the code fix for CVE-2023-30570.
    - Fix CVE-2023-2295 Regression of CVE-2023-30570 fixes in the       Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 8 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2023:7052 advisory.

    Libreswan is an implementation of IPsec and IKE for Linux. IPsec is the Internet Protocol Security and     uses strong cryptography to provide both authentication and encryption services. These services allow you     to build secure tunnels through untrusted networks such as virtual private network (VPN).

    Security Fix(es):

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv2 REKEY proposal causes restart (CVE-2023-38710)

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv1 Quick Mode ID causes restart (CVE-2023-38711)

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv1 repeat IKE SA delete causes crash and restart (CVE-2023-38712)

    For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and     other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

    Additional Changes:

    For detailed information on changes in this release, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.9 Release Notes     linked from the References section.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote CentOS Linux 8 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the CESA-2023:7052 advisory.

  - An issue was discovered in Libreswan before 4.12. When an IKEv2 Child SA REKEY packet contains an invalid     IPsec protocol ID number of 0 or 1, an error notify INVALID_SPI is sent back. The notify payload's     protocol ID is copied from the incoming packet, but the code that verifies outgoing packets fails an     assertion that the protocol ID must be ESP (2) or AH(3) and causes the pluto daemon to crash and restart.
    NOTE: the earliest affected version is 3.20. (CVE-2023-38710)

  - An issue was discovered in Libreswan before 4.12. When an IKEv1 Quick Mode connection configured with     ID_IPV4_ADDR or ID_IPV6_ADDR receives an IDcr payload with ID_FQDN, a NULL pointer dereference causes a     crash and restart of the pluto daemon. NOTE: the earliest affected version is 4.6. (CVE-2023-38711)

  - An issue was discovered in Libreswan 3.x and 4.x before 4.12. When an IKEv1 ISAKMP SA Informational     Exchange packet contains a Delete/Notify payload followed by further Notifies that act on the ISAKMP SA,     such as a duplicated Delete/Notify message, a NULL pointer dereference on the deleted state causes the     pluto daemon to crash and restart. (CVE-2023-38712)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 9 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2023:6549 advisory.

    Libreswan is an implementation of IPsec and IKE for Linux. IPsec is the Internet Protocol Security and     uses strong cryptography to provide both authentication and encryption services. These services allow you     to build secure tunnels through untrusted networks such as virtual private network (VPN).

    Security Fix(es):

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv2 REKEY proposal causes restart (CVE-2023-38710)

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv1 Quick Mode ID causes restart (CVE-2023-38711)

    * libreswan: Invalid IKEv1 repeat IKE SA delete causes crash and restart (CVE-2023-38712)

    For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and     other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

    Additional Changes:

    For detailed information on changes in this release, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.3 Release Notes     linked from the References section.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The version of libreswan installed on the remote host is prior to 3.25-4.8. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ALAS2-2023-2299 advisory.

    A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability was found in the Libreswan package. When an IKEv1 ISAKMP SA     Informational Exchange packet contains a Delete/Notify payload followed by further Notifies that act on     the ISAKMP SA, such as a duplicated Delete/Notify message, a NULL pointer dereference on the deleted state     occurs. This flaw allows a malicious client or attacker to send a malformed IKEv1 Delete/Notify packet,     causing a crash and restarting the libreswan pluto daemon. When sent continuously, this could lead to a     denial of service attack. (CVE-2023-38712)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the tested product security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Fedora 38 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the FEDORA-2023-ddd6e6b49b advisory.

    Update to 4.12 for CVE-2023-38710, CVE-2023-38711 and CVE-2023-38712     addressing post-authentication denial of service attacks

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Fedora 37 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the FEDORA-2023-dbc6d8a124 advisory.

    Update to 4.12 for CVE-2023-38710, CVE-2023-38711 and CVE-2023-38712     addressing post-authentication denial of service attacks

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
242820	NewStart CGSL MAIN 7.02 : libreswan Multiple Vulnerabilities (NS-SA-2025-0120)	Nessus	NewStart CGSL Local Security Checks	medium
236374	Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 : 0039: libreswan (ALINUX3-SA-2024:0039)	Nessus	Alibaba Cloud Linux Local Security Checks	high
226862	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-38712	Nessus	Misc.	medium
214103	RHEL 9 : libreswan (RHSA-2025:0309)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
211987	RHEL 9 : libreswan (RHSA-2024:10594)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
201731	CBL Mariner 2.0 Security Update: libreswan (CVE-2023-38712)	Nessus	MarinerOS Local Security Checks	medium
191308	CentOS 9 : libreswan-4.12-1.el9	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	medium
186124	Oracle Linux 8 : libreswan (ELSA-2023-7052)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	medium
185841	Oracle Linux 9 : libreswan (ELSA-2023-6549)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	medium
185676	RHEL 8 : libreswan (RHSA-2023:7052)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
185624	CentOS 8 : libreswan (CESA-2023:7052)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	medium
185108	RHEL 9 : libreswan (RHSA-2023:6549)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
183478	Amazon Linux 2 : libreswan (ALAS-2023-2299)	Nessus	Amazon Linux Local Security Checks	medium
179995	Fedora 38 : libreswan (2023-ddd6e6b49b)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	medium
179994	Fedora 37 : libreswan (2023-dbc6d8a124)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	medium

Detections

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CVE-2023-38712

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Tenable Plugins

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