CVE-2024-45337

CRITICAL

Misused connection.serverAuthenticate - Auth Bypass

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 4 public exploits for CVE-2024-45337. PoCs published by NHAS, peace-maker, Backline-playground.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This repository contains a functional Go-based PoC for CVE-2024-45337, which exploits an SSH authentication bypass vulnerability. The exploit generates a fake SSH signer to bypass public key verification, allowing unauthorized access to an SSH server.

Description

Applications and libraries which misuse connection.serverAuthenticate (via callback field ServerConfig.PublicKeyCallback) may be susceptible to an authorization bypass. The documentation for ServerConfig.PublicKeyCallback says that "A call to this function does not guarantee that the key offered is in fact used to authenticate." Specifically, the SSH protocol allows clients to inquire about whether a public key is acceptable before proving control of the corresponding private key. PublicKeyCallback may be called with multiple keys, and the order in which the keys were provided cannot be used to infer which key the client successfully authenticated with, if any. Some applications, which store the key(s) passed to PublicKeyCallback (or derived information) and make security relevant determinations based on it once the connection is established, may make incorrect assumptions. For example, an attacker may send public keys A and B, and then authenticate with A. PublicKeyCallback would be called only twice, first with A and then with B. A vulnerable application may then make authorization decisions based on key B for which the attacker does not actually control the private key. Since this API is widely misused, as a partial mitigation golang.org/x/[email protected] enforces the property that, when successfully authenticating via public key, the last key passed to ServerConfig.PublicKeyCallback will be the key used to authenticate the connection. PublicKeyCallback will now be called multiple times with the same key, if necessary. Note that the client may still not control the last key passed to PublicKeyCallback if the connection is then authenticated with a different method, such as PasswordCallback, KeyboardInteractiveCallback, or NoClientAuth. Users should be using the Extensions field of the Permissions return value from the various authentication callbacks to record data associated with the authentication attempt instead of referencing external state. Once the connection is established the state corresponding to the successful authentication attempt can be retrieved via the ServerConn.Permissions field. Note that some third-party libraries misuse the Permissions type by sharing it across authentication attempts; users of third-party libraries should refer to the relevant projects for guidance.

Exploits (4)

nomisec WORKING POC 5 stars
by NHAS · poc
https://github.com/NHAS/CVE-2024-45337-POC

This repository contains a functional Go-based PoC for CVE-2024-45337, which exploits an SSH authentication bypass vulnerability. The exploit generates a fake SSH signer to bypass public key verification, allowing unauthorized access to an SSH server.

Classification
Working Poc 95%
Attack Type
Auth Bypass
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: SSH server (specific version not specified)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Access to a vulnerable SSH server · Public key file for the fake signer
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 19, 2026 Full analysis →
nomisec WORKING POC 1 stars
by peace-maker · poc
https://github.com/peace-maker/CVE-2024-45337

This repository contains a functional proof-of-concept exploit for CVE-2024-45337, which targets an authentication bypass vulnerability in Gitea and Forgejo's SSH server due to unsafe caching of permissions in the `ServerConfig.PublicKeyCallback` callback. The exploit allows an attacker to impersonate any user by leveraging a known public key associated with the target account.

Classification
Working Poc 95%
Attack Type
Auth Bypass
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Gitea <= 1.22.4, Forgejo <= 7.0.11, 9.0.2
Auth required
Prerequisites: An account on the vulnerable Gitea/Forgejo instance · A known public key of the target user · Access to the SSH server
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 19, 2026 Full analysis →
nomisec WORKING POC 1 stars
by NHAS · poc
https://github.com/NHAS/VULNERABLE-CVE-2024-45337

This repository contains a vulnerable Go SSH server implementation that demonstrates CVE-2024-45337, an authentication bypass vulnerability. The server accepts any SSH public key but only allows connections from a specified fingerprint, showcasing the flawed logic that can be exploited.

Classification
Working Poc 90%
Attack Type
Auth Bypass
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Custom Go SSH server (example project)
Auth required
Prerequisites: SSH client with a crafted public key · Network access to the vulnerable server
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 19, 2026 Full analysis →
nomisec WRITEUP
by Backline-playground · poc
https://github.com/Backline-playground/gogs

This repository contains a detailed guide for analyzing and fixing GitHub Security Advisories (GHSA) in the Gogs project. It includes steps for fetching vulnerability details, verifying the vulnerability, identifying affected code, proposing fixes, and creating pull requests. The guide is comprehensive and provides clear technical instructions for contributors.

Classification
Writeup 90%
Attack Type
Other
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Theoretical
Target: Gogs
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Access to the Gogs repository · Understanding of Go and web application development
devstral-2 · analyzed Apr 13, 2026 Full analysis →

Scores

CVSS v3 9.1
EPSS 0.3863
EPSS Percentile 97.4%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable yes
Technical Impact total

Details

Status published
Products (2)
golang.org/x/crypto/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh < 0.31.0
x/crypto 0 - 0.31.0Go
Published Dec 12, 2024
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026