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Tailscale says SSH bugs can raise privileges; patch due Oct. 27
Tailscale said privilege-escalation flaws in Tailscale SSH can let authorized users exceed their local account, and it is targeting a patched client by the end of Tuesday, Oct. 27.
- New headline Was: “Tailscale SSH: Investigation and remediation update”
- Our desk filed its story
- tailscale.com is now reporting this
Tailscale Inc. said Monday it is investigating security vulnerabilities in Tailscale SSH that can let someone already authorized to connect act beyond their configured local user, including potentially gaining elevated privileges1.
The company, which sells a WireGuard-based overlay network used for remote and infrastructure access, said its engineering and security teams are working the reported issues with outside specialists and have accelerated existing work to prepare fixes1.
Most of the problems identified so far concern privilege escalation rather than unauthenticated remote takeover, Tailscale said1. Exploitation, it said, depends on the permissions granted to the connecting user or device, how the system is configured, and other conditions, and the company is still verifying which setups are affected1.
Based on its current assessment, Tailscale is not recommending that every customer turn Tailscale SSH off1. It called the findings serious and said it is treating them accordingly1.
Engineers have implemented fixes for most of the issues and are finishing tests before a patched client release, the company said1. It is targeting that release by the end of Tuesday, Oct. 27, if testing succeeds, and said it will update the same page when the build is out or if the timeline slips1. Remaining findings are still under review1.
Until then, Tailscale recommended reviewing SSH access policies so only users and devices that need access can connect, considering tighter policies on sensitive systems, and preparing to install the patched client1. Customers who do not need SSH forwarding can set TS_SSH_DISABLE_FORWARDING=1 in the tailscaled service environment and restart the service, a step the company said disables forwarding without turning Tailscale SSH off and mitigates several of the more serious findings1.
After the fixes ship, Tailscale said it will publish a security advisory with confirmed vulnerabilities, affected versions and configurations, impact, and remediation steps, then a technical blog post on causes and engineering changes1. It did not list CVE identifiers or version numbers in Monday's update1. Customers with environment-specific questions were directed to Tailscale Support1.
