Client memory corruption via host-key re-exchange
Published Jul 8, 2026 · Updated Jul 8, 2026
Use-after-free in OpenSSH ssh before 10.4 allows remote attackers to corrupt client memory by changing the host key during rekeying. The client’s re-exchange path accesses host-key state after that allocation has been freed when the server supplies a different key. The required gate is a key re-exchange with a server that substitutes its host key; published material does not establish code execution or a reliable crash.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in OpenSSH ssh before 10.4 allows remote attackers to corrupt client memory by changing the host key during rekeying. The client’s re-exchange path accesses host-key state after that allocation has been freed when the server supplies a different key. The required gate is a key re-exchange with a server that substitutes its host key; published material does not establish code execution or a reliable crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-60002
- Published
- Jul 8, 2026
- Updated
- Jul 8, 2026
- Vendor
- OpenBSD Project
- Product
- OpenSSH
- Classifications
- CWE-416
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 8, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jul 8, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=0 <10.4
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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