Authentication Bypass in pykerberos (CVE-2015-3206)
Summary
Authentication bypass in pykerberos (CVE-2015-3206). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. Mitigation: upgrade to 1.1.6 or later.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
The checkPassword function in python-kerberos does not authenticate the KDC it attempts to communicate with, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (bad response), or have other unspecified impact by performing a man-in-the-middle attack.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD GitHub Advisory
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2015-3206 has been found in pykerberos.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. CVSS score: 8.1/10.
What to do: upgrade pykerberos to 1.1.6 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "pykerberos CVE-2015-3206" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2015-3206 (pykerberos) — CWE-287 / CVSS v3 8.1
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / unauthenticated / no user interaction
Patched: 1.1.6 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
Authentication bypass (CWE-287) exists in pykerberos.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of pykerberos.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.1/10). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to 1.1.6.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'pykerberos' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
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1Identify exposure identify
grep -r 'pykerberos' . | grep -v node_modulesリポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で
pykerberosを grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。 -
2Apply patch patch
Upgrade pykerberos to 1.1.6ステージング環境で 1.1.6 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
-
3Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Affected packages
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2015-3206 pykerberos Fixed in: 1.1.5-1
References
- advisory github.com
- report bugzilla.redhat.com
- report github.com
- web openwall.com
- web securityfocus.com
- web pypi.python.org