CVE-2015-7703

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 3.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2017-07-24 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-20

Description

The "pidfile" or "driftfile" directives in NTP ntpd 4.2.x before 4.2.8p4, and 4.3.x before 4.3.77, when ntpd is configured to allow remote configuration, allows remote attackers with an IP address that is allowed to send configuration requests, and with knowledge of the remote configuration password to write to arbitrary files via the :config command.

Affected products

Debian Linux: 7.0, 8.0, 9.0
Clustered Data ONTAP: all versions
NetApp Data ONTAP operating in 7-Mode: all versions
NetApp Oncommand Performance Manager: all versions
NetApp OnCommand Unified Manager for 7-Mode (core package): all versions
NTP: from 4.2.0 before 4.2.8; from 4.3.0 before 4.3.77; 4.2.8, 4.2.8-p1, 4.2.8-p1-beta1, 4.2.8-p1-beta2, 4.2.8-p1-beta3, 4.2.8-p1-beta4 (+11) — fixed in 4.2.8, 4.3.77
Oracle Corporation Oracle Linux: 6
RedHat Enterprise Linux Desktop: 6.0, 7.0
RedHat Enterprise Linux Server: 6.0, 7.0
RedHat Enterprise Linux Server Aus: 7.3, 7.4, 7.6, 7.7
RedHat Enterprise Linux Server Eus: 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7
RedHat Enterprise Linux Server Tus: 7.3, 7.6, 7.7
RedHat Enterprise Linux Workstation: 6.0, 7.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: NTP 4.2.8, 4.3.77. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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