CVE-2020-10595
CWE-120Published: March 31, 2020· Updated: Jun 17, 2026
Official Description
pam-krb5 before 4.9 has a buffer overflow that might cause remote code execution in situations involving supplemental prompting by a Kerberos library. It may overflow a buffer provided by the underlying Kerberos library by a single '\0' byte if an attacker responds to a prompt with an answer of a carefully chosen length. The effect may range from heap corruption to stack corruption depending on the structure of the underlying Kerberos library, with unknown effects but possibly including code execution. This code path is not used for normal authentication, but only when the Kerberos library does supplemental prompting, such as with PKINIT or when using the non-standard no_prompt PAM configuration option.
Technical Analysis
CVE-2020-10595 can be exploited remotely over the network without requiring physical or adjacent access, significantly expanding the attack surface for threat actors.
The vulnerability requires no privileges and no user interaction, making it a prime target for automated exploitation campaigns and worm-like propagation.
A successful exploit results in complete confidentiality breach (data exposure), full integrity compromise (data manipulation), availability disruption (denial of service), with a CVSS base score of 9.8.
CVSS v3.1 Vector Breakdown
Affected Vendors & Products
Exploit & PoC Resources
Official Patches & Advisories
All References (12)
Quick Facts
Related CVEs (CWE-120)
Recommended Actions
- →Apply vendor patches immediately
- →Monitor CVE-2020-10595 in threat intel feeds
- →Review IDS/IPS signatures for exploitation attempts