What is CVE-2023-51385?

CVE-2023-51385 is a medium-severity vulnerability in OpenBSD OpenSSH, classified under OS Command Injection. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2023-12-18.

How severe is CVE-2023-51385?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2023-51385 known to be exploited?

80 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

RCE in OpenBSD OpenSSH

CVE-2023-51385

In ssh in OpenSSH before 9.6, OS command injection might occur if a user name or host name has shell metacharacters, and this name is referenced by an expansion token in certain situations. For example, an untrusted Git repository can have a submodule with shell metacharacters in a user name or host name.

Vulnerability class: Command Injection (OS Command Injection)

Published 2023-12-18 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.198 (97.3th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Moderate probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — watch for active exploitation reports. 97th percentile — 97.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.198 · newest: 0.198 · change: 0.000

Affected products

OpenBSD OpenSSH
Debian Linux — versions 10.0, 11.0, 12.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-78 — OS Command Injection

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

www.openssh.com/txt/release-9.6 (Release Notes)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/12/18/2 (Mailing List, Release Notes)
github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/commit/7ef3787c84b6b524501211b11a26c742f829… (Patch)
DSA-5586 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
vin01.github.io/piptagole/ssh/security/openssh/libssh/remote-code-execution/202… (Third Party Advisory)
[debian-lts-announce] 20231226 [SECURITY] [DLA 3694-1] openssh security update (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
[oss-security] 20231226 CVE-2023-51385, CVE-2023-6004: OpenSSH, libssh: Security weakness in ProxyCommand handling (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
GLSA-202312-17 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240105-0005/
support.apple.com/kb/HT214084

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-51385?: CVE-2023-51385 is a medium-severity vulnerability in OpenBSD OpenSSH, classified under OS Command Injection. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2023-12-18.
How severe is CVE-2023-51385?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2023-51385 known to be exploited?: 80 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.