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Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS : OpenVPN vulnerabilities (USN-7340-1)

critical Nessus Plugin ID 232579

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-7340-1 advisory.

 It was discovered that OpenVPN did not perform proper input validation when generating a TLS key under certain configuration, which could lead to a buffer overflow. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. (CVE-2017-12166)

 Reynir Bjrnsson discovered that OpenVPN incorrectly handled certain control channel messages with nonprintable characters. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause OpenVPN to consume resources, or fill up log files with garbage, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2024-5594)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected openvpn package.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-7340-1

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 232579

File Name: ubuntu_USN-7340-1.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 3/11/2025

Updated: 3/11/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.0

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

Temporal Score: 5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2017-12166

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 8.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:openvpn, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Debian/dpkg-l, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 3/11/2025

Vulnerability Publication Date: 9/28/2017

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2017-12166, CVE-2024-5594

IAVA: 2017-A-0285-S, 2024-A-0608

USN: 7340-1