OpenSSH through 8.7 allows remote attackers, who have a suspicion that a certain combination of username and public key is known to an SSH server, to test whether this suspicion is correct. This occurs because a challenge is sent only when that combination could be valid for a login session. NOTE: the vendor does not recognize user enumeration as a vulnerability for this product
CVE-2016-20012
Score 5.3 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2022-05-24. NVD baseline CVSS 5.3; sources differ by 0.0.
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.
- CVSS v3
- 5.3
- EG Score
- 5.3(medium)
- EG Risk
- 41(Track)EG Risk 41/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity53% × 45%Exploitation5% × 40%Automatability100% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS
- 91.8%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
September 15, 2021
Last Modified
May 29, 2026
References (17)
- cve@mitrehttps://github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/blob/d0fffc88c8fe90c1815c6f4097bc8cbcabc0f3dd/auth2-pubkey.c#L261-L265
- cve@mitrehttps://github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/pull/270
- cve@mitrehttps://github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/pull/270#issuecomment-920577097
- cve@mitrehttps://github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/pull/270#issuecomment-943909185
- cve@mitrehttps://rushter.com/blog/public-ssh-keys/
- cve@mitrehttps://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20211014-0005/
- cve@mitrehttps://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/tech/SSHKeysAreInfoLeak
- cve@mitrehttps://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2018/08/24/1
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/blob/d0fffc88c8fe90c1815c6f4097bc8cbcabc0f3dd/auth2-pubkey.c#L261-L265
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/pull/270
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/pull/270#issuecomment-920577097
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/pull/270#issuecomment-943909185
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://rushter.com/blog/public-ssh-keys/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20211014-0005/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/tech/SSHKeysAreInfoLeak
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2016-20012(1)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
All Vendor Advisories
(1)
Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 14× in last 7d / 44× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
- 2026-07-23 01:22 UTCEG score recompute
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- 2026-05-26 10:18 UTCVendor advisory
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- 2026-05-26 07:16 UTCEPSS rescore
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Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2016-20012?
When was CVE-2016-20012 disclosed?
Is CVE-2016-20012 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2016-20012?
How do I remediate CVE-2016-20012?
Dependency Blast Radius
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