High (7.4). EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.
ntpkeygen can generate keys that ntpd fails to parse. NTPsec 1.2.0 allows ntpkeygen to generate keys with '#' characters. ntpd then either pads, shortens the key, or fails to load these keys entirely, depending on the key type and the placement of the '#'. This results in the administrator not being able to use the keys as expected or the keys are shorter than expected and easier to brute-force, possibly resulting in MITM attacks between ntp clients and ntp servers. For short AES128 keys, ntpd generates a warning that it is padding them.
Severity
CVSS 3.1
7.4 high
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
EPSS
0.5% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days; higher than 44% of CVEs (scores of 2026-10-31)