Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A04:2025 - Cryptographic Failures
ASVS 5.0
V11 - Cryptography Signature verification
|
| Impact | The CVSS 2.5 score with vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N/E:P/RL:O/RC:C indicates low immediate severity but with published exploit code (E:P). The attack requires local access (AV:L), high complexity (AC:H), and low privileges (PR:L), which significantly constrains real-world exploitation. The integrity impact (I:L) is limited, and there is no confidentiality or availability impact. However, the published exploit status and presence in active repositories elevate concern. The vulnerability's nature—cryptographic signature bypass—carries inherent risk despite the CVSS floor, as signature forgery could lead to unauthorized SSH access in multi-user or containerized environments. For organizations running tinyssh on multi-tenant systems or embedded appliances, the local privilege boundary becomes a critical risk factor. The high attack complexity mitigates automated exploitation, making this a moderate priority for patching rather than an emergency response scenario. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker with local user access on a system running vulnerable tinyssh could craft a malicious Ed25519 signature that passes the flawed verification logic, potentially allowing the attacker to authenticate as a different user or impersonate the SSH host to other clients. A public proof-of-concept (available at https://github.com/janmojzis/tinyssh/issues/101#issue-3983586116) demonstrates the feasibility of signature forgery. While the attack requires local code execution and high technical understanding of Ed25519 cryptography, the presence of public exploit code lowers the barrier for motivated threat actors in multi-user or embedded systems scenarios. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Mar 22, 2026
A cryptographic signature verification flaw exists in tinyssh's Ed25519 signature handler (crypto_sign_ed25519_tinyssh.c) that allows improper validation of signatures, potentially enabling an attacker to forge or bypass signature checks. Affected versions of janmojzis tinyssh up to 20250501 are impacted, with the vulnerability requiring local execution and high attack complexity. A public exploit has been disclosed, and vendor patches are available in version 20260301.
RemediationAI
Upgrade tinyssh to version 20260301 or later from the official repository (https://github.com/janmojzis/tinyssh/releases/tag/20260301). The patch commit 9c87269607e0d7d20174df742accc49c042cff17 addresses the signature verification flaw in crypto_sign_ed25519_tinyssh.c. For systems unable to patch immediately, restrict SSH access to tinyssh-based servers to trusted local networks and implement additional SSH access controls via iptables or equivalent firewall rules to limit local authentication attack surface. Monitor systems for suspicious signature validation errors in SSH logs and consider running tinyssh in sandboxed or containerized environments with restrictive Linux capabilities to limit the impact of local privilege exploitation.
Affected VersionsENISA
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Technical ContextAI · show details
The vulnerability resides in the Ed25519 signature verification implementation within tinyssh, a lightweight SSH server implementation. According to CWE-347 (Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature), the flaw involves inadequate validation logic in the crypto_sign_ed25519_tinyssh.c component that handles EdDSA (Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm) signature verification. TinySSH uses Ed25519 as a core cryptographic primitive for SSH host key authentication and message authentication. The CPE (cpe:2.3:a:janmojzis:tinyssh:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) indicates all versions of the tinyssh product line are in scope until patching. The root cause appears to be improper cryptographic signature validation logic that could allow an attacker with local access to bypass signature verification checks intended to authenticate SSH operations.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
Lifecycle Timeline
5DescriptionCVE.org
A flaw has been found in janmojzis tinyssh up to 20250501. Impacted is an unknown function of the file tinyssh/crypto_sign_ed25519_tinyssh.c of the component Ed25519 Signature Handler. This manipulation causes improper verification of cryptographic signature. The attack is restricted to local execution. The attack's complexity is rated as high. The exploitability is considered difficult. The exploit has been published and may be used. Upgrading to version 20260301 is recommended to address this issue. Patch name: 9c87269607e0d7d20174df742accc49c042cff17. Upgrading the affected component is recommended. If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Executive ViewAI
CVE-2026-4541 is a low-severity vulnerability in janmojzis tinyssh (CVSS 2.5). The limited severity suggests constrained impact, typically requiring specific conditions or local access for exploitation. A patch is available and can be applied during standard maintenance windows.
Apply vendor patch during routine maintenance. Standard security controls provide adequate interim protection.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
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What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
Related Vulnerabilities in Ed25519 Signature Handler Verification Flaws
View all 2Same technique Information Disclosure
View allVendor StatusVendor
Debian
| Release | Status | Fixed Version | Urgency |
|---|---|---|---|
| bullseye | not-affected | - | - |
| bookworm | not-affected | - | - |
| trixie | vulnerable | 20250501-1 | - |
| forky, sid | fixed | 20260301-1 | - |
| (unstable) | fixed | 20260301-1 | unimportant |
EUVD-2026-14291
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
GitHub
VulDB
Exploit-DB