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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2014-2855 json

The check_secret function in authenticate.c in rsync 3.1.0 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop…

published 2014-04-23 12 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2014-2879

cvss
7.8
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
4.2%
EPSS 4.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 91%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The check_secret function in authenticate.c in rsync 3.1.0 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop and CPU consumption) via a user name which does not exist in the secrets file.

Patch / fix

  • rsync Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.1.0-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2014-2855

  • rsync Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.1.0-2ubuntu0.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2014-2855

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • rsync openSUSE Tumbleweed 3.1.2-1.5

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10548-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2014-2855 updated cvss 4.3

rsync: CPU consumption denial of service when authenticating with a non-existent username

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 rsync Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 rsync Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 rsync
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

4.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 91% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 7.8 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.