# CVE-2014-5355: Null dereference in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause a denial of service in MIT Kerberos 5 via malformed version strings, affecting authentication services.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 20 Feb 2015
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2014-5355, GHSA-cmh6-3x5j-qf2g, MGASA-2015-0119, UBUNTU-CVE-2014-5355

## What is CVE-2014-5355?

CVE-2014-5355 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Mit Kerberos 5, published on 20 Feb 2015. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.13.1 incorrectly expects that a krb5_read_message data field is represented as a string ending with a '\0' character, which allows remote attackers to (1) cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference) via a zero-byte version string or (2) cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) by omitting the '\0' character, related to appl/user_user/server.c and lib/krb5/krb/recvauth.c.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2014-5355?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Mit Kerberos 5.

## How do I fix CVE-2014-5355?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2014-5355 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-5355 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Mit Kerberos 5

- [CVE-2011-0285](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-0285/): Use after free in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2008-0947](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-0947/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2007-5902](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-5902/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2007-4743](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-4743/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2007-3999](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-3999/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2014-5355 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2014-5355 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Mit Kerberos 5, published on 20 Feb 2015. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-5355 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Mit Kerberos 5. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-5355/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-5355/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-5355
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-5355
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2014-5355

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-5355/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.