wolfSSL wolfSSH up to 1.5.0 privileges management

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as very critical, has been found in wolfSSL wolfSSH up to 1.5.0. This issue affects some unknown processing. Performing a manipulation results in privileges management. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2026-83540. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical has been found in wolfSSL wolfSSH up to 1.5.0. This affects an unknown functionality. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a privileges management vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-269. The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

When password or public key authentication is used with the Windows port of wolfSSHd, the Windows logon token acquired for one authenticated connection is not released before a token is acquired for a subsequent connection, resulting in user login poisoning between connections. A less privileged user with a valid account on the server can exploit this to force a login as a more privileged user. The vulnerability was introduced with the initial Windows port of wolfSSHd in wolfSSH version 1.4.15 and affects all versions through 1.5.0. Non-Windows builds of wolfSSHd are not affected.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-83540 since 08/31/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/07/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1068 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2026-94163). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• wolfSSL

Name

• wolfSSH

Version

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 1.2
• 1.3
• 1.4
• 1.5.0

License

• open-source

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Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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