What is CVE-2017-9078?

CVE-2017-9078 is a high-severity vulnerability in Dropbear SSH Project, classified under Double Free. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2017-05-19.

How severe is CVE-2017-9078?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.

Double Free in Dropbear SSH Project

CVE-2017-9078

The server in Dropbear before 2017.75 might allow post-authentication root remote code execution because of a double free in cleanup of TCP listeners when the -a option is enabled.

Vulnerability class: Double Free

Published 2017-05-19 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.057 (92.9th percentile), scored 2026-10-19.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 93rd percentile — 92.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.055 · newest: 0.057 · change: +0.002

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-415 — Double Free

References

www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3859 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/pipermail/dropbear/2017q2/001985.html (Patch, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20191004-0006/ (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-9078?: CVE-2017-9078 is a high-severity vulnerability in Dropbear SSH Project, classified under Double Free. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2017-05-19.
How severe is CVE-2017-9078?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.