Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-121506

high Nessus Plugin ID 376479

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

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

- An out-of-bounds read and write in NTS client extension field parsing (extens_client_recv) in NTPsec before 1.2.5 allows a remote attacker who can send NTP server-mode replies to an NTS client to corrupt heap memory and crash ntpd, and, combined with the NTS-KE client out-of-bounds read fixed in 1.2.4, to bypass NTS authentication and set the client's time, via an NTS Authenticator and Encrypted Extension Fields field whose nonce length exceeds the field. (CVE-2026-121506)

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

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-121506

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-121506

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 376479

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_121506.nasl

Version: 1.3

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 11/5/2026

Updated: 11/6/2026

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.3

Percentile: 96.11

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.4

Temporal Score: 5.4

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-121506

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.4

Temporal Score: 6.8

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.10, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:ntpsec, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:ntpsec

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/local_checks_enabled, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 11/3/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-121506