CVE-2003-0190
OpenSSH-portable (OpenSSH) 3.6.1p1 and earlier with PAM support enabled immediately sends an error message when a user does not exist,…
- 5.0MediumCVSS base score
- 76.8%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.4% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 4Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
OpenSSH-portable (OpenSSH) 3.6.1p1 and earlier with PAM support enabled immediately sends an error message when a user does not exist, which allows remote attackers to determine valid usernames via a timing attack.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Metasploit module and 3 Exploit-DB entries for it.
Show the exploits4
Metasploit modules1 module
- SSH Username Enumeration (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
auxiliary/scanner/ssh/ssh_enumusersRank normal
Exploit-DB3 entries
- Portable OpenSSH 3.6.1p-PAM/4.1-SuSE - Timing Attack (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 3303remote, multiplepublished 13 Feb 2007Verified
- OpenSSH/PAM 3.6.1p1 - 'gossh.sh' Remote Users Ident (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 26remote, linuxpublished 2 May 2003Verified
- OpenSSH/PAM 3.6.1p1 - Remote Users Discovery Tool (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 25remote, linuxpublished 30 Apr 2003Verified
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By mitre
- 31 days later
· 31 days later
Published
- 21 years later
· 21 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 2.0 | Medium5.0 | AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 76.8% · top 0.4% of all CVEs (9 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.0.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
10
- RHSA-2003:222 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_transferred
- 20030430 OpenSSH/PAM timing attack allows remote users identification (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_transferred
- 7467 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_transferred
- 20030806 [OpenPKG-SA-2003.035] OpenPKG Security Advisory (openssh) (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_transferred
- RHSA-2003:224 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_transferred
- oval:org.mitre.oval:def:445 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entrysignaturex_transferred
- http://lab.mediaservice.net/advisory/2003-01-openssh.txt (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- TLSA-2003-31 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_transferred
- 20030430 OpenSSH/PAM timing attack allows remote users identification (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_transferred
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/pdf/ssa-412672.pdf (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2003-0186 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2003-0190)Record last updated .