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CVE-2015-7974

21
FAUCET Score

CVE-2015-7974 describes a vulnerability in NTP 4.x versions prior to 4.2.8p6 and 4.3.x prior to 4.3.90, affecting products like Debian, NetApp, and Siemens. The flaw allows remote attackers to impersonate legitimate NTP peers by exploiting a lack of symmetric key verification, effectively using an arbitrary trusted key as a "skeleton key." With a CVSS score of 7.7 (HIGH), this vulnerability is easily exploitable over the network with low privileges and no user interaction, potentially leading to high integrity impact. Despite its severity, there is no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
>= 4.2.0, < 4.2.8CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:ntp:ntp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
>= 4.3.0, < 4.3.90CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:ntp:ntp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
4.2.8CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:ntp:ntp:4.2.8:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
4.2.8CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:ntp:ntp:4.2.8:p1:*:*:*:*:*:*
4.2.8CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:ntp:ntp:4.2.8:p1-beta1:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

7.7HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
NONE
Exploitability Score
3.1
Impact Score
4.0
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
5.66%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
92.2%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0566 is in the 92nd percentile among its peer group of 17,844 CVEs.

Social Chatter

No social media mentions found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.3 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (3)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: ntp-0:4.2.6p5-25.el7
View patch
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: ntp
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: ntp

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2015-7974Low

ntp: missing key check allows impersonation between authenticated peers (VU#357792)

Jan 20, 2016

References

bugs.ntp.org / show_bug.cgi
Issue TrackingVendor Advisory
rhn.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2016-2583.html
Third Party Advisory
cert-portal.siemens.com / productcert/pdf/ssa-497656.pdf
Third Party Advisory
h20566.www2.hpe.com / hpsc/doc/public/display
Third Party Advisory
h20566.www2.hpe.com / hpsc/doc/public/display
Third Party Advisory
security.freebsd.org / advisories/FreeBSD-SA-16:09.ntp.asc
Third Party Advisory
security.gentoo.org / glsa/201607-15
Third Party Advisory
security.netapp.com / advisory/ntap-20171031-0001
Third Party Advisory
support.ntp.org / bin/view/Main/NtpBug2936
Vendor Advisory
us-cert.cisa.gov / ics/advisories/icsa-21-103-11
Third Party AdvisoryUS Government Resource
debian.org / security/2016/dsa-3629
Third Party Advisory
securityfocus.com / bid/81960
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
securitytracker.com / id/1034782
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
talosintel.com / reports/TALOS-2016-0071
ExploitThird Party Advisory