CVE-2025-59089

MEDIUM
Published Nov 12, 2025 Modified Apr 20, 2026 CWE-770

Description

If an attacker causes kdcproxy to connect to an attacker-controlled KDC server (e.g. through server-side request forgery), they can exploit the fact that kdcproxy does not enforce bounds on TCP response length to conduct a denial-of-service attack. While receiving the KDC's response, kdcproxy copies the entire buffered stream into a new buffer on each recv() call, even when the transfer is incomplete, causing excessive memory allocation and CPU usage. Additionally, kdcproxy accepts incoming response chunks as long as the received data length is not exactly equal to the length indicated in the response header, even when individual chunks or the total buffer exceed the maximum length of a Kerberos message. This allows an attacker to send unbounded data until the connection timeout is reached (approximately 12 seconds), exhausting server memory or CPU resources. Multiple concurrent requests can cause accept queue overflow, denying service to legitimate clients.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

5.9
MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-770 CWE-770

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-59089? +
If an attacker causes kdcproxy to connect to an attacker-controlled KDC server (e.g. through server-side request forgery), they can exploit the fact that kdcproxy does not enforce bounds on TCP response length to conduct a denial-of-service attack. While receiving the KDC's response, kdcproxy copies the entire buffered stream into a new buffer on each recv() call, even when the transfer is incomplete, causing excessive memory allocation and CPU usage. Additionally, kdcproxy accepts incoming response chunks as long as the received data length is not exactly equal to the length indicated in the response header, even when individual chunks or the total buffer exceed the maximum length of a Kerberos message. This allows an attacker to send unbounded data until the connection timeout is reached (approximately 12 seconds), exhausting server memory or CPU resources. Multiple concurrent requests can cause accept queue overflow, denying service to legitimate clients. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.9 (MEDIUM).
How severe is CVE-2025-59089? +
CVE-2025-59089 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.9 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance.
How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2025-59089? +
You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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