Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:Y/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Remote unauthenticated attacker (AV:N/PR:N/UI:N) with a trivial message sequence (AC:L); impact is bounded per-connection CPU consumption so A:L with no confidentiality or integrity effect.
Primary rating from Vendor (wolfSSL).
CVSS VectorVendor: wolfSSL
Lifecycle Timeline
4DescriptionCVE.org
src/internal.c in wolfSSL wolfSSH through 1.5.0 admits the server-to-client Diffie-Hellman group exchange messages SSH_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP (31) and SSH_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY (33) when a server receives them from an unauthenticated client. IsMessageAllowedServer() applies no direction check to the key exchange message range: when the peer is keying and no particular message is expected, which is the state a server is in for the whole window after it processes the client's KEXINIT because nothing sets handshake->expectMsgId there, the function falls out of its expectation branch without a verdict and reaches a numeric bound that admits every message id from 30 through 34. A client that negotiates diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256 and then sends message 31 makes the server run the client-side handler DoKexDhGexGroup(), which validates the attacker-supplied group with two 8-round Miller-Rabin primality tests, one on p and one on (p-1)/2, on a value of up to 8192 bits. The handler then returns success: the server stores the attacker's prime and generator, generates a Diffie-Hellman key pair in the attacker's group, and sends the client-role message SSH_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT (32) back to the attacker. Published RFC 3526 safe primes are the worst-case input and cost the attacker nothing to obtain. The primality validation was added in 1.5.0; versions from 1.2.0 through 1.4.22 admit the same message and enter the same client-role path without the primality cost. Message 33 is admitted as well, but on a server it is rejected before any cryptography because no public key check callback is registered, so it carries no comparable cost. Builds that define WOLFSSH_NO_DH_GEX_SHA256, which is implied by WOLFSSH_NO_DH or NO_SHA256, are unaffected.
AnalysisAI
Pre-authentication CPU exhaustion affects wolfSSH servers through 1.5.0 that are built with Diffie-Hellman group-exchange SHA256 support, letting a remote unauthenticated client force the server to execute client-role key-exchange logic. After negotiating diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256, the attacker sends SSH_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP (31) - a message only a client should send - and the server runs the client-side handler DoKexDhGexGroup(), performing two 8-round Miller-Rabin primality tests on an attacker-supplied prime of up to 8192 bits and then generating a Diffie-Hellman key pair in the attacker's group. …
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Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata
Vulnerability AssessmentAI
| Exploitation | Exploitable only when the wolfSSH server is built with DH group-exchange SHA256 support - i.e. … Additional conditions and limiting factors are described in the full assessment. |
| Risk Assessment | This is a pre-authentication denial-of-service/CPU-exhaustion issue, not a memory-corruption or data-exposure flaw, and the signals agree that it is a real but modest priority. … Full risk analysis with EPSS, KEV, and SSVC signal comparison available after sign-in. |
| Exploit Scenario | Full exploit scenario with step-by-step reproduction available after sign-in. |
| Remediation | Patch status: Upstream fix available (PR/commit); released patched version not independently confirmed - the fix reverts the direction check in IsMessageAllowedServer() so that MSGID_KEXDH_REPLY and MSGID_KEXDH_GEX_REPLY (the latter aliasing MSGID_KEXDH_GEX_GROUP) are rejected when received by a server, as captured in pull request https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssh/pull/1221 and commit https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssh/commit/a472f1ee2b653f623d85ef2297321733f1dbfd22. … Detailed patch versions, workarounds, and compensating controls in full report. |
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Same weakness CWE-372 – Incomplete Internal State Distinction
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-94165
GHSA-39q2-5h5r-39p7