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Fencer Vulns
low 1.2

CVE-2005-2666 json

SSH, as implemented in OpenSSH before 4.0 and possibly other implementations, stores hostnames, IP addresses, and keys in plaintext in the…

published 2005-08-23 21 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2005-2667

cvss
1.2
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.2%
EPSS 1.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 67%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

SSH, as implemented in OpenSSH before 4.0 and possibly other implementations, stores hostnames, IP addresses, and keys in plaintext in the known_hosts file, which makes it easier for an attacker that has compromised an SSH user's account to generate a list of additional targets that are more likely to have the same password or key.

Patch / fix

  • openssh Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:4.0p1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2005-2666

  • openssh RHEL 4 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20
  • openssh-server RHEL 4 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20
  • openssh-askpass RHEL 4 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20
  • openssh-clients RHEL 4 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20
  • openssh-askpass-gnome RHEL 4 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20

red hat advisories RHSA-2007:0257

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2005-2666 updated

openssh vulnerable to known_hosts address harvesting

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 openssh 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-server 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-clients 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass-gnome 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 openssh 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-server 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-clients 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass-gnome 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 openssh 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-server 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-clients 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass-gnome 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 openssh 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-server 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-clients 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass-gnome 3.9p1-8.RHEL4.20
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2007:0257

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

1.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 67% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 1.2 AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-255 Credentials Management Errors

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.