CVE-2011-0281 describes a denial-of-service vulnerability in MIT Kerberos 5 (versions 1.6.x through 1.9) when using an LDAP backend. A remote attacker can exploit this by sending a specially crafted principal name containing a backslash escape sequence, such as "\n", to the Key Distribution Center (KDC). This triggers file descriptor exhaustion and causes the KDC daemon to hang. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 5.0 (medium severity), indicating a network-based attack with low complexity, requiring no authentication, and resulting in partial availability impact. Its EPSS score is low, suggesting a low probability of exploitation. There is no evidence of active exploitation, and no public exploit code is available in Metasploit, Nuclei, or ExploitDB. Community discussion and media coverage for this CVE are minimal, indicating a lack of widespread attention.
| Vendor | Product | Version(s) | CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
5-1.6.3CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:a:mit:kerberos:5-1.6.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
1.6CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:a:mit:kerberos_5:1.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
1.6.1CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:a:mit:kerberos_5:1.6.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
1.6.2CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:a:mit:kerberos_5:1.6.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
1.7CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:a:mit:kerberos_5:1.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
CVSS version used by this source: 2.0
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.4 GitHub mentions.
No media coverage found for this CVE.
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.