CVE-2025-14282: Dropbear: privilege escalation via unix domain socket forwardings

Published Dec 8, 2025
·
Updated

A flaw was found in Dropbear. When running in multi-user mode and authenticating users, the dropbear ssh server does the socket forwardings requested by the remote client as root, only switching to the logged-in user upon spawning a shell or performing some operations like reading the user's files. With the recent ability of also using unix domain sockets as the forwarding destination any user able to log in via ssh can connect to any unix socket with the root's credentials, bypassing both file system restrictions and any SOPEERCRED / SOPASSCRED checks performed by the peer.

Affected Software

1 affected component
Dropbear Dropbear<2025.89

Event History

Dec 8, 2025
Data Sourced
via Red Hat·04:51 PM
DescriptionSeverityAffected Software
Feb 12, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·09:37 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·09:37 PM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
Data Sourced
via NVD·10:16 PM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
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Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2025-14282?

CVE-2025-14282 is classified as a high severity vulnerability due to the potential for privilege escalation.

2

How do I fix CVE-2025-14282?

To fix CVE-2025-14282, update Dropbear to a version later than 2025.89 where the vulnerability is patched.

3

What is the impact of CVE-2025-14282?

The impact of CVE-2025-14282 is that it allows a remote user to execute commands with elevated privileges through UNIX domain socket forwardings.

4

Which versions of Dropbear are affected by CVE-2025-14282?

Dropbear versions up to and including 2025.89 are affected by CVE-2025-14282.

5

Is CVE-2025-14282 specific to any operating system?

CVE-2025-14282 affects Dropbear running in multi-user mode on any operating system that supports this SSH server.

Contact

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