CVE-2015-2157

Severity: low (CVSS 2.1 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2015-03-27 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-200

Description

The (1) ssh2_load_userkey and (2) ssh2_save_userkey functions in PuTTY 0.51 through 0.63 do not properly wipe SSH-2 private keys from memory, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information by reading the memory.

Affected products

Debian Linux: 7.0
Fedoraproject Fedora: 20, 22
Opensuse: 13.1, 13.2
PuTTY: 0.51, 0.52, 0.53b, 0.54, 0.55, 0.56 (+7)
Simon Tatham Putty: 0.53

References

http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-March/151790.html
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-March/151839.html
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-March/151933.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-03/msg00032.html
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/private-key-not-wiped-2.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3190
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2015/02/28/4
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2015/02/28/5
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/72825
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-March/151790.html
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-March/151839.html

Get alerted when CVE-2015-2157 or the next vulnerability affects your stack