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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2015-7703 json

The "pidfile" or "driftfile" directives in NTP ntpd 4.2.x before 4.2.8p4, and 4.3.x before 4.3.77, when ntpd is configured to allow remote…

published 2017-07-24 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2015-7604

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.8%
EPSS 3.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 90%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The "pidfile" or "driftfile" directives in NTP ntpd 4.2.x before 4.2.8p4, and 4.3.x before 4.3.77, when ntpd is configured to allow remote configuration, allows remote attackers with an IP address that is allowed to send configuration requests, and with knowledge of the remote configuration password to write to arbitrary files via the :config command.

Patch / fix

  • ntp ntp 4.2.8, 4.3.77
  • ntp Debian 11 1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-7703

  • ntp Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.5

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-7703

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

  • ntp RHEL 7 4.2.6p5-25.el7
  • sntp RHEL 7 4.2.6p5-25.el7
  • ntpdate RHEL 7 4.2.6p5-25.el7
  • ntp-perl RHEL 7 4.2.6p5-25.el7
  • ntp RHEL 6 4.2.6p5-10.el6
  • ntpdate RHEL 6 4.2.6p5-10.el6
  • ntp-perl RHEL 6 4.2.6p5-10.el6

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:2583RHSA-2016:0780

  • ntp SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA, SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLES 11 SP2-LTSS +3 more 4.2.8p6-41.1
  • ntp SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12, SLED 12 4.2.8p6-46.5.2
  • yast2-ntp-client SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12, SLED 12 +1 more 3.1.12.4-8.2
  • ntp SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLED 11 SP4 4.2.8p4-5.1
  • yast2-ntp-client SLES 11 SP2-LTSS 2.17.14.1-1.12.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2016:1311-1SUSE-SU-2016:1247-1SUSE-SU-2015:2058-1

  • ntp openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.2.8p9-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10181-1

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-2015-7703 updated cvss 4.0

ntp: config command can be used to set the pidfile and drift file paths

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 ntp
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Disable remote runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc. In the default NTP configuration on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc is limited to localhost.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) ntp 4.2.6p5-25.el7, ntpdate 4.2.6p5-25.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) sntp 4.2.6p5-25.el7, ntp-perl 4.2.6p5-25.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) ntp 4.2.6p5-25.el7, ntpdate 4.2.6p5-25.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) sntp 4.2.6p5-25.el7, ntp-perl 4.2.6p5-25.el7
    fixed: vendor fix “Disable remote runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc. In the default NTP configuration on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc is limited to localhost.” RHSA-2016:2583
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) ntp 4.2.6p5-10.el6, ntpdate 4.2.6p5-10.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) ntp-perl 4.2.6p5-10.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) ntp 4.2.6p5-10.el6, ntpdate 4.2.6p5-10.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) ntp-perl 4.2.6p5-10.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) ntp 4.2.6p5-10.el6, ntpdate 4.2.6p5-10.el6
    fixed: vendor fix “Disable remote runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc. In the default NTP configuration on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc is limited to localhost.” RHSA-2016:0780
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) ntp 4.2.6p5-25.el7, ntpdate 4.2.6p5-25.el7
    fixed: vendor fix “Disable remote runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc. In the default NTP configuration on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc is limited to localhost.” RHSA-2016:2583
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) ntp-perl 4.2.6p5-10.el6
    fixed: vendor fix “Disable remote runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc. In the default NTP configuration on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc is limited to localhost.” RHSA-2016:0780
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) sntp 4.2.6p5-25.el7, ntp-perl 4.2.6p5-25.el7
    fixed: vendor fix “Disable remote runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc. In the default NTP configuration on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc is limited to localhost.” RHSA-2016:2583
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) ntp 4.2.6p5-10.el6, ntpdate 4.2.6p5-10.el6
    fixed: vendor fix “Disable remote runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc. In the default NTP configuration on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc is limited to localhost.” RHSA-2016:0780
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) ntp 4.2.6p5-25.el7, ntpdate 4.2.6p5-25.el7
    fixed: vendor fix “Disable remote runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc. In the default NTP configuration on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc is limited to localhost.” RHSA-2016:2583
show 2 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) ntp-perl 4.2.6p5-10.el6
    fixed: vendor fix “Disable remote runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc. In the default NTP configuration on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc is limited to localhost.” RHSA-2016:0780
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) sntp 4.2.6p5-25.el7, ntp-perl 4.2.6p5-25.el7
    fixed: vendor fix “Disable remote runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc. In the default NTP configuration on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, runtime configuration with ntpq or ntpdc is limited to localhost.” RHSA-2016:2583

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

3.82% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 90% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N

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.