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OpenSSH GSSAPI Vulnerability Allow an Attacker to Crash SSH Child Processes

## Cybersecurity: OpenSSH GSSAPI Vulnerability

DBy Danielle FrostMar 13, 20261 min read

Cybersecurity: OpenSSH GSSAPI Vulnerability

A vulnerability, identified as CVE-2026-3497, has been found in the GSSAPI Key Exchange patch applied to several Linux distributions' OpenSSH packages. Security researcher Jeremy Brown discovered this flaw, which allows attackers to crash SSH child processes and potentially breach privilege separation boundaries using a specially crafted network packet.

The defect originates from a code issue in kexgsss.c , affecting the server-side GSSAPI key exchange handler. The error occurs due to the use of sshpkt_disconnect() instead of the intended ssh_packet_disconnect() in the error-handling process.

This leads to the execution of code that accesses an uninitialized stack variable, recv_tok , whose contents are sent to a privileged monitor process, possibly causing heap corruption.

A crafted SSH packet of around 300 bytes can trigger the flaw without requiring credentials. On x86_64 systems, exploitation results in SIGABRT or SIGSEGV with a 90-second SSH lockout. Child process crashes have been found to be consistently reliable in tested configurations. Up to 127KB of heap data may be transmitted to the root-level monitor process, breaching privilege separation.

A vulnerability, identified as CVE-2026-3497, has been found in the GSSAPI Key Exchange patch applied to several Linux distributions' OpenSSH packages.
Danielle Frost · Thehackingpost

The severity varies across distributions due to compiler options and optimization flags. For example, Clang compiled with -O0 retains a pointer value of 0xfffbe600 with a 4-byte length, whereas GCC compiled with -O2 -fno-stack-protector retains a valid heap address of 127,344 bytes.

Testing confirmed that recv_tok.value can vary from NULL to stack addresses, heap addresses, or unmapped memory areas.

Affected systems include Ubuntu and Debian OpenSSH servers with GSSAPIKeyExchange yes enabled. The impact scope likely extends beyond these distributions due to various versions of the GSSAPI KEX patch in use.

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The recommended fix involves replacing sshpkt_disconnect() with ssh_packet_disconnect() in kexgsss.c . Ubuntu has released a patch to address this issue. Administrators should apply available updates immediately or disable GSSAPIKeyExchange as a temporary measure.

Based on reporting by Cyber Security News.

AI transparency. This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published under human editorial oversight. AI systems can make mistakes. Read how we use AI (EU AI Act, Art. 50).
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