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Strongswan CVE-2017-11185

HIGH
NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)
2017-08-18 cve@mitre.org
7.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
View

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A10:2025 - Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions
ASVS 5.0
V16 - Security Logging and Error Handling Null pointer safety, defensive checks
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Impact

CVSS score of 7.5 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. EPSS exploitation probability: 0.71%.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

A remote attacker could crash the application by dereferencing a null pointer by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
No patch listed yet 0.7% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAI

The gmp plugin in strongSwan before 5.6.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and daemon crash) via a crafted RSA signature. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.

RemediationAI

No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Check pointers before dereferencing. Use static analysis tools to detect null pointer paths.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

This vulnerability is classified as NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476), which allows attackers to crash the application by dereferencing a null pointer. The gmp plugin in strongSwan before 5.6.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and daemon crash) via a crafted RSA signature. Affected products include: Strongswan. Version information: before 5.6.0.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 7.5 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

DescriptionCVE.org

The gmp plugin in strongSwan before 5.6.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and daemon crash) via a crafted RSA signature.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.7%
Top 28% exploitable
Data Quality
3 sources
Confidence: Low

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.7%
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
Yes
Human Impact· derived
Medium

Priority Score

39
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: +1
CVSS: +38
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

A null pointer dereference occurs when a program attempts to access memory through a pointer that has been set to NULL (address 0x0).

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org

cpe:2.3:a:strongswan:strongswan:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
CVE-2026-25075 HIGH POC
8.7 Mar 23

Unauthenticated remote attackers can crash strongSwan versions 4.5.0 through 6.0.4 via integer underflow in the EAP-TTLS

CVE-2015-3991 CRITICAL
9.8 Sep 07

strongSwan 5.2.2 and 5.3.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) or execute arbitrary code

CVE-2023-41913 CRITICAL
9.8 Dec 07

strongSwan before 5.9.12 has a buffer overflow and possible unauthenticated remote code execution via a DH public value

CVE-2023-26463 CRITICAL
9.8 Apr 15

strongSwan 5.9.8 and 5.9.9 potentially allows remote code execution because it uses a variable named "public" for two di

CVE-2013-5018 MEDIUM POC
4.3 Aug 28

The is_asn1 function in strongSwan 4.1.11 through 5.0.4 does not properly validate the return value of the asn1_length f

CVE-2017-9022 HIGH
7.5 Jun 08

The gmp plugin in strongSwan before 5.5.3 does not properly validate RSA public keys before calling mpz_powm_sec, which

CVE-2017-9023 HIGH
7.5 Jun 08

The ASN.1 parser in strongSwan before 5.5.3 improperly handles CHOICE types when the x509 plugin is enabled, which allow

CVE-2012-2388 HIGH
7.5 Jun 27

The GMP Plugin in strongSwan 4.2.0 through 4.6.3 allows remote attackers to bypass authentication via a (1) empty or (2)

CVE-2026-78133 HIGH
7.5 Sep 07

Use-after-free in strongSwan's IKEv2 Multi-Key Exchange (Multi-KE, RFC 9370) implementation is triggered when two authen

CVE-2026-78132 HIGH
7.5 Sep 07

Denial of service via infinite loop in strongSwan's x509 plugin affects all deployments that process X.509 attribute cer

CVE-2026-78130 HIGH
7.5 Sep 07

Denial of service via NULL-pointer dereference in strongSwan's x509 plugin affects versions 4.2.0 through 6.0.x, trigger

CVE-2026-25998 HIGH
7.5 Feb 19

strongMan's credential encryption uses a static initialization vector with AES-CTR mode, causing all database fields to

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