CVE-2005-2666

Severity: low (CVSS 1.2 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2005-08-23 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-255

Description

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.

Affected products

OpenSSH: 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.0.1p1, 3.0.2, 3.0.2p1, 3.0p1 (+24)

References

http://nms.csail.mit.edu/projects/ssh/
http://secunia.com/advisories/19243
http://secunia.com/advisories/25098
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0%2C1759%2C1815795%2C00.asp
http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2007-0257.html
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A10201
http://nms.csail.mit.edu/projects/ssh/
http://secunia.com/advisories/19243
http://secunia.com/advisories/25098
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0%2C1759%2C1815795%2C00.asp

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