A cross-protocol scripting issue was discovered in the management interface in OpenVPN through 2.4.5.
A cross-protocol scripting issue was discovered in the management interface in OpenVPN through 2.4.5. When this interface is enabled over TCP without a password, and when no other clients are connected to this interface, attackers can execute arbitrary management commands, obtain sensitive information, or cause a denial of service (SIGTERM) by triggering XMLHttpRequest actions in a web browser. This is demonstrated by a multipart/form-data POST to http://localhost:23000 with a "signal SIGTERM" command in a TEXTAREA element. NOTE: The vendor disputes that this is a vulnerability. They state that this is the result of improper configuration of the OpenVPN instance rather than an intrinsic vulnerability, and now more explicitly warn against such configurations in both the management-interface documentation, and with a runtime warning
- Published
- Mar 16, 2018
- Updated
- Jun 16, 2026
- EPSS
- 1.8% · 78th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-134
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Report tools
Action score
37
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 36 / 40 · 9.1 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 1 / 30 · 1.8%
CISA SSVC decision
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- yes
- Technical impact
- partial
Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.
Affected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| openvpn | openvpn | cpe:2.3:a:openvpn:openvpn |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- openvpn openvpnup to 2.4.5 inclusive
Package-level exposure
OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:11 | openvpn | all versions | — |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.2 | openvpn | before 2.4.3-lp152.6.3.1 | 2.4.3-lp152.6.3.1 |
| openSUSE:Tumbleweed | openvpn | before 2.5.4-2.1 | 2.5.4-2.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2 | openvpn | before 2.4.3-5.7.1 | 2.4.3-5.7.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11-SECURITY | openvpn-openssl1 | before 2.3.2-0.10.9.1 | 2.3.2-0.10.9.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 | openvpn | before 2.3.8-16.26.1 | 2.3.8-16.26.1 |
Same product
openvpn: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2024-27903OpenVPN plug-ins on Windows with OpenVPN 2.6.9 and earlier could be loaded from any directory, which allows an attacker to load an arbitrary42Plan
- CVE-2023-46850Use after free in OpenVPN version 2.6.0 to 2.6.6 may lead to undefined behavoir, leaking memory buffers or remote execution when sending net40Plan
- CVE-2022-0547OpenVPN 2.1 until v2.4.12 and v2.5.6 may enable authentication bypass in external authentication plug-ins when more than one of them makes u40Plan
- CVE-2017-12166OpenVPN versions before 2.3.3 and 2.4.x before 2.4.4 are vulnerable to a buffer overflow vulnerability when key-method 1 is used, possibly r40Plan
- CVE-2025-10680OpenVPN 2.7_alpha1 through 2.7_beta1 on POSIX based platforms allows a remote authenticated server to inject shell commands via DNS variable37Monitor
- CVE-2006-1629OpenVPN 2.0 through 2.0.5 allows remote malicious servers to execute arbitrary code on the client by using setenv with the LD_PRELOAD enviro37Monitor
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
| Product / package | Fixed version | Source |
|---|---|---|
| opensuse:openvpn | 2.4.3-lp152.6.3.1 · openSUSE:Leap 15.2 | Package registry (OSV) |
| suse:openvpn | 2.3.8-16.26.1 · SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 | Package registry (OSV) |
| suse:openvpn-openssl1 | 2.3.2-0.10.9.1 · SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11-SECURITY | Package registry (OSV) |
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
No credits in the CNA record.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
No nightly-computed relations.
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
—
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
- No account or password is required.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- high · data can be read
- Integrity
- none
- Availability
- high · the service can be disrupted
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- High
- Integrity impact
- None
- Availability impact
- High
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-134 · Use of Externally-Controlled Format StringCVSS vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
nvd-primary
Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Attack patterns (CAPEC)
ATT&CK techniques
—
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for helpChange log
- Fix✗ → ✓
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