Nasty regreSSHion bug in OpenSSH puts roughly 700K Linux boxes at risk

Glibc-based Linux systems are vulnerable to a new bug (CVE-2024-6387) in OpenSSH's server (sshd) and should upgrade to the latest version. Infosec researchers at Qualys published their findings today, revealing that sshd is vulnerable to a race condition that could allow an unauthenticated attacker to achieve remote code execution (RCE) on potentially hundreds of thousands of targets. Successful exploitation could give intruders root-level access to a system, allowing them to potentially get away with virtually anything. Of the 14 million possibly vulnerable sshd instances that show up on Censys and Shodan scans, Qualys believes that roughly 700,000 of these internet-facing instances could feasibly be hit by regreSSHion – the name researchers gave to the flaw based on its roots. "In our security analysis, we identified that this vulnerability is a regression of the previously patched vulnerability CVE-2006-5051, which was reported in 2006," said Qualys. "A regression in this context means that a flaw, once fixed, has reappeared in a subsequent software release, typically due to changes or updates that inadvertently reintroduce the issue. "This incident highlights the crucial role of thorough regression testing to prevent the reintroduction of known vulnerabilities into the environment. This regression was introduced in October 2020 (OpenSSH 8.5p1)." Damien Miller, founder of the portable OpenSSH project and maintainer since 1999, said in an online discussion that anything run...