Cloud Vulnerability DB
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Vulnerability DatabaseCVE-2021-33500
CVE-2021-33500:
NixOS vulnerability analysis and mitigation
Overview
PuTTY before version 0.75 on Windows contained a vulnerability that allowed remote servers to cause a denial of service by telling the PuTTY window to change its title repeatedly at high speed, affecting the entire Windows GUI (NVD).
Technical details
The vulnerability exists in the terminal emulator's title handling mechanism where a malicious server could send repeated commands to change the window title at high speed. This could be triggered through a specially crafted sequence of terminal escape sequences that modify the window title (PuTTY Changelog).
Impact
When exploited, this vulnerability could cause a denial of service condition affecting the entire Windows GUI system, not just the PuTTY application. This would effectively freeze or hang the Windows graphical interface, requiring user intervention to restore normal operation (NVD).
Mitigation and workarounds
The vulnerability was fixed in PuTTY version 0.75. Users should upgrade to PuTTY 0.75 or later to mitigate this security issue (PuTTY Changelog).
Additional resources
Source: This report was generated using AI
Related NixOS vulnerabilities:
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