Debian dla-4437 : dirmngr - security update

high Nessus Plugin ID 284513

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Synopsis

The remote Debian host is missing a security-related update.

Description

The remote Debian 11 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the dla-4437 advisory.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debian LTS Advisory DLA-4437-1 [email protected] https://www.debian.org/lts/security/ Roberto C. Snchez January 14, 2026 https://wiki.debian.org/LTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Package : gnupg2 Version : 2.2.27-2+deb11u3 CVE ID : CVE-2025-68973 Debian Bug : 1124221

Several issues have been discovered in gnupg2, a tool for secure communication and data storage.

CVE-2025-68973

There exist memory corruptions in the armor parsing code of GnuPG that can be exploited to provide primitives like out of bounds buffer read and write. This might be exploitable to the point of remote code execution (RCE).

Additional issues:

+ Potential key signature digest algorithm downgrade.

GnuPG may downgrade the message digest algorithm to insecure SHA1 algorithm during signature checking due to reading from uninitialized memory. This reduces the security of User ID Certification Signatures to that of SHA1. SHA1 suffers from known cryptographic weaknesses like chosen prefix attacks.

+ Multiple plaintext attack on detached PGP signatures.

An attacker can arbitrarily swap the plaintext shown to a GnuPG user, when the user verifies a detached signature versus views it with `--decrypt`. This attack allows deceiving users verifying messages, following GnuPG usage best practices about the content of a message signed with a detached signature. Note, that it is possible in many scenarios to convert between signature types, i.e., convert a different signature type to a detached signature.

+ GnuPG Accepts Path Separators and Path Traversals in Literal Data.

GnuPG accepts arbitrary file paths in the unsigned Literal Data packet filename field and uses that value without sufficient sanitization. In combination with tricking a user with ANSI formatted output that changes GnuPG output with deceptive apparent GnuPG logs, this can lead to creation or overwrite of any file on the system the user can write to, including executable files which the user may later execute.

For Debian 11 bullseye, these problems have been fixed in version 2.2.27-2+deb11u3.

We recommend that you upgrade your gnupg2 packages.

For the detailed security status of gnupg2 please refer to its security tracker page at:
https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/gnupg2

Further information about Debian LTS security advisories, how to apply these updates to your system and frequently asked questions can be found at: https://wiki.debian.org/LTS Attachment:
signature.asc Description: PGP signature

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

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

Solution

Upgrade the dirmngr packages.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 284513

File Name: debian_DLA-4437.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Debian Local Security Checks

Published: 1/14/2026

Updated: 1/14/2026

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 7.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6

Temporal Score: 4.4

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2025-68973

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7

Temporal Score: 6.1

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gpgv-win32, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gpg, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gnupg, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gpg-wks-server, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gpg-wks-client, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gpgconf, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gpgv2, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gnupg-l10n, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:scdaemon, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gpgsm, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:dirmngr, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gnupg2, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gnupg-utils, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gpg-agent, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gpgv-udeb, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gpgv-static, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gnupg-agent, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:gpgv

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/Debian/release, Host/Debian/dpkg-l

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 1/14/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/28/2025

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2025-68973

Detections

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