Heap Use-After-Free in OpenSSL PKCS7verify()
Heap Use-After-Free in OpenSSL PKCS7verify() (CVE-2026-45447) Severity: High
Issue summary: A specially crafted PKCS#7 or S/MIME signed message could trigger a use-after-free during PKCS#7 signature verification.
Impact summary: A use-after-free may result in process crashes, heap corruption, or potentially remote code execution.
When processing a PKCS#7 or S/MIME signed message, if the SignedData digestAlgorithms field is present as an empty ASN.1 SET, OpenSSL may incorrectly free a caller-owned BIO during PKCS7verify(). A subsequent use of the BIO by the calling application results in a use-after-free condition.
In the common case this occurs when the application later calls BIOfree() on the BIO originally passed to PKCS7verify(). Depending on allocator behavior and application-specific BIO usage patterns, this may result in a crash or other memory corruption. In some application contexts this may potentially be exploitable for remote code execution.
Applications that process PKCS#7 or S/MIME signed messages using OpenSSL PKCS#7 APIs may be affected. Applications using the CMS APIs for this processing are not affected.
The FIPS modules in 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
OpenSSL 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.0, 1.1.1, and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.
OpenSSL 4.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 4.0.1 OpenSSL 3.6 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.6.3. OpenSSL 3.5 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.5.7. OpenSSL 3.4 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.4.6. OpenSSL 3.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.0.21. OpenSSL 1.1.1 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.1.1zh (premium support customers only). OpenSSL 1.0.2 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.2zq (premium support customers only).
This issue was reported by Thai Duong (Calif.io in collaboration with Claude and Anthropic Research). on 27th April 2026. The fix was developed by Igor Ustinov.
Issue summary: During processing of a crafted CMS EnvelopedData message with KeyTransportRecipientInfo a NULL pointer dereference can happen.
Impact summary: Applications that process attacker-controlled CMS data may crash before authentication or cryptographic operations occur resulting in Denial of Service.
When a CMS EnvelopedData message that uses KeyTransportRecipientInfo with RSA-OAEP encryption is processed, the optional parameters field of RSA-OAEP SourceFunc algorithm identifier is examined without checking for its presence. This results in a NULL pointer dereference if the field is missing.
Applications and services that call CMSdecrypt() on untrusted input (e.g., S/MIME processing or CMS-based protocols) are vulnerable.
The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
Issue summary: A type confusion vulnerability exists in the TimeStamp Response verification code where an ASN1TYPE union member is accessed without first validating the type, causing an invalid or NULL pointer dereference when processing a malformed TimeStamp Response file.
Impact summary: An application calling TSRESPverifyresponse() with a malformed TimeStamp Response can be caused to dereference an invalid or NULL pointer when reading, resulting in a Denial of Service.
The functions osslessgetsigningcert() and osslessgetsigningcertv2() access the signing cert attribute value without validating its type. When the type is not VASN1SEQUENCE, this results in accessing invalid memory through the ASN1TYPE union, causing a crash.
Exploiting this vulnerability requires an attacker to provide a malformed TimeStamp Response to an application that verifies timestamp responses. The TimeStamp protocol (RFC 3161) is not widely used and the impact of the exploit is just a Denial of Service. For these reasons the issue was assessed as Low severity.
The FIPS modules in 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the TimeStamp Response implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0 and 1.1.1 are vulnerable to this issue.
OpenSSL 1.0.2 is not affected by this issue.
Issue summary: When using the low-level OCB API directly with AES-NI or<br>other hardware-accelerated code paths, inputs whose length is not a multiple<br>of 16 bytes can leave the final partial block unencrypted and unauthenticated.<br><br>Impact summary: The trailing 1-15 bytes of a message may be exposed in<br>cleartext on encryption and are not covered by the authentication tag,<br>allowing an attacker to read or tamper with those bytes without detection.<br><br>The low-level OCB encrypt and decrypt routines in the hardware-accelerated<br>stream path process full 16-byte blocks but do not advance the input/output<br>pointers. The subsequent tail-handling code then operates on the original<br>base pointers, effectively reprocessing the beginning of the buffer while<br>leaving the actual trailing bytes unprocessed. The authentication checksum<br>also excludes the true tail bytes.<br><br>However, typical OpenSSL consumers using EVP are not affected because the<br>higher-level EVP and provider OCB implementations split inputs so that full<br>blocks and trailing partial blocks are processed in separate calls, avoiding<br>the problematic code path. Additionally, TLS does not use OCB ciphersuites.<br>The vulnerability only affects applications that call the low-level<br>CRYPTOocb128encrypt() or CRYPTOocb128decrypt() functions directly with<br>non-block-aligned lengths in a single call on hardware-accelerated builds.<br>For these reasons the issue was assessed as Low severity.<br><br>The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.2, 3.1 and 3.0 are not affected<br>by this issue, as OCB mode is not a FIPS-approved algorithm.<br><br>OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0 and 1.1.1 are vulnerable to this issue.<br><br>OpenSSL 1.0.2 is not affected by this issue.
Issue summary: A type confusion vulnerability exists in the signature verification of signed PKCS#7 data where an ASN1TYPE union member is accessed without first validating the type, causing an invalid or NULL pointer dereference when processing malformed PKCS#7 data.
Impact summary: An application performing signature verification of PKCS#7 data or calling directly the PKCS7digestfromattributes() function can be caused to dereference an invalid or NULL pointer when reading, resulting in a Denial of Service.
The function PKCS7digestfromattributes() accesses the message digest attribute value without validating its type. When the type is not VASN1OCTETSTRING, this results in accessing invalid memory through the ASN1TYPE union, causing a crash.
Exploiting this vulnerability requires an attacker to provide a malformed signed PKCS#7 to an application that verifies it. The impact of the exploit is just a Denial of Service, the PKCS7 API is legacy and applications should be using the CMS API instead. For these reasons the issue was assessed as Low severity.
The FIPS modules in 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the PKCS#7 parsing implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.
Issue summary: Calling PKCS12getfriendlyname() function on a maliciously crafted PKCS#12 file with a BMPString (UTF-16BE) friendly name containing non-ASCII BMP code point can trigger a one byte write before the allocated buffer.
Impact summary: The out-of-bounds write can cause a memory corruption which can have various consequences including a Denial of Service.
The OPENSSLuni2utf8() function performs a two-pass conversion of a PKCS#12 BMPString (UTF-16BE) to UTF-8. In the second pass, when emitting UTF-8 bytes, the helper function bmptoutf8() incorrectly forwards the remaining UTF-16 source byte count as the destination buffer capacity to UTF8putc(). For BMP code points above U+07FF, UTF-8 requires three bytes, but the forwarded capacity can be just two bytes. UTF8putc() then returns -1, and this negative value is added to the output length without validation, causing the length to become negative. The subsequent trailing NUL byte is then written at a negative offset, causing write outside of heap allocated buffer.
The vulnerability is reachable via the public PKCS12getfriendlyname() API when parsing attacker-controlled PKCS#12 files. While PKCS12parse() uses a different code path that avoids this issue, PKCS12getfriendlyname() directly invokes the vulnerable function. Exploitation requires an attacker to provide a malicious PKCS#12 file to be parsed by the application and the attacker can just trigger a one zero byte write before the allocated buffer. For that reason the issue was assessed as Low severity according to our Security Policy.
The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the PKCS#12 implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0 and 1.1.1 are vulnerable to this issue.
OpenSSL 1.0.2 is not affected by this issue.
Issue summary: An invalid or NULL pointer dereference can happen in an application processing a malformed PKCS#12 file.
Impact summary: An application processing a malformed PKCS#12 file can be caused to dereference an invalid or NULL pointer on memory read, resulting in a Denial of Service.
A type confusion vulnerability exists in PKCS#12 parsing code where an ASN1TYPE union member is accessed without first validating the type, causing an invalid pointer read.
The location is constrained to a 1-byte address space, meaning any attempted pointer manipulation can only target addresses between 0x00 and 0xFF. This range corresponds to the zero page, which is unmapped on most modern operating systems and will reliably result in a crash, leading only to a Denial of Service. Exploiting this issue also requires a user or application to process a maliciously crafted PKCS#12 file. It is uncommon to accept untrusted PKCS#12 files in applications as they are usually used to store private keys which are trusted by definition. For these reasons, the issue was assessed as Low severity.
The FIPS modules in 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the PKCS12 implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0 and 1.1.1 are vulnerable to this issue.
OpenSSL 1.0.2 is not affected by this issue.
Issue summary: Processing a malformed PKCS#12 file can trigger a NULL pointer dereference in the PKCS12itemdecryptd2iex() function.
Impact summary: A NULL pointer dereference can trigger a crash which leads to Denial of Service for an application processing PKCS#12 files.
The PKCS12itemdecryptd2iex() function does not check whether the oct parameter is NULL before dereferencing it. When called from PKCS12unpackp7encdata() with a malformed PKCS#12 file, this parameter can be NULL, causing a crash. The vulnerability is limited to Denial of Service and cannot be escalated to achieve code execution or memory disclosure.
Exploiting this issue requires an attacker to provide a malformed PKCS#12 file to an application that processes it. For that reason the issue was assessed as Low severity according to our Security Policy.
The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the PKCS#12 implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.
Issue summary: Writing large, newline-free data into a BIO chain using the line-buffering filter where the next BIO performs short writes can trigger a heap-based out-of-bounds write.
Impact summary: This out-of-bounds write can cause memory corruption which typically results in a crash, leading to Denial of Service for an application.
The line-buffering BIO filter (BIOflinebuffer) is not used by default in TLS/SSL data paths. In OpenSSL command-line applications, it is typically only pushed onto stdout/stderr on VMS systems. Third-party applications that explicitly use this filter with a BIO chain that can short-write and that write large, newline-free data influenced by an attacker would be affected. However, the circumstances where this could happen are unlikely to be under attacker control, and BIOflinebuffer is unlikely to be handling non-curated data controlled by an attacker. For that reason the issue was assessed as Low severity.
The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the BIO implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.
Heap Buffer Over-read in ASN.1 Content Parsing
Issue summary: A signed integer overflow when sizing the destination buffer for Unicode output in ASN1mbstringncopy() can lead to a heap buffer overflow.
Issue summary: When CMS password-based decryption (RFC 3211 / PWRI key unwrap) processes attacker-supplied CMS data, an attacker-chosen stream-mode KEK cipher can trigger a heap out-of-bounds read in kekunwrapkey().
Issue summary: A specially crafted password-encrypted CMS message can trigger a NULL pointer dereference during CMS decryption.
Issue summary: During processing of a crafted CMS EnvelopedData message with KeyAgreeRecipientInfo a NULL pointer dereference can happen.
Impact summary: Applications that process attacker-controlled CMS data may crash before authentication or cryptographic operations occur resulting in Denial of Service.
When a CMS EnvelopedData message that uses KeyAgreeRecipientInfo is processed, the optional parameters field of KeyEncryptionAlgorithmIdentifier is examined without checking for its presence. This results in a NULL pointer dereference if the field is missing.
Applications and services that call CMSdecrypt() on untrusted input (e.g., S/MIME processing or CMS-based protocols) are vulnerable.
The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
Issue summary: An uncommon configuration of clients performing DANE TLSA-based server authentication, when paired with uncommon server DANE TLSA records, may result in a use-after-free and/or double-free on the client side.
Impact summary: A use after free can have a range of potential consequences such as the corruption of valid data, crashes or execution of arbitrary code.
However, the issue only affects clients that make use of TLSA records with both the PKIX-TA(0/PKIX-EE(1) certificate usages and the DANE-TA(2) certificate usage.
By far the most common deployment of DANE is in SMTP MTAs for which RFC7672 recommends that clients treat as 'unusable' any TLSA records that have the PKIX certificate usages. These SMTP (or other similar) clients are not vulnerable to this issue. Conversely, any clients that support only the PKIX usages, and ignore the DANE-TA(2) usage are also not vulnerable.
The client would also need to be communicating with a server that publishes a TLSA RRset with both types of TLSA records.
No FIPS modules are affected by this issue, the problem code is outside the FIPS module boundary.
Issue summary: When a delta CRL that contains a Delta CRL Indicator extension is processed a NULL pointer dereference might happen if the required CRL Number extension is missing.
Impact summary: A NULL pointer dereference can trigger a crash which leads to a Denial of Service for an application.
When CRL processing and delta CRL processing is enabled during X.509 certificate verification, the delta CRL processing does not check whether the CRL Number extension is NULL before dereferencing it. When a malformed delta CRL file is being processed, this parameter can be NULL, causing a NULL pointer dereference.
Exploiting this issue requires the X509VFLAGUSEDELTAS flag to be enabled in the verification context, the certificate being verified to contain a freshestCRL extension or the base CRL to have the EXFLAGFRESHEST flag set, and an attacker to provide a malformed CRL to an application that processes it.
The vulnerability is limited to Denial of Service and cannot be escalated to achieve code execution or memory disclosure. For that reason the issue was assessed as Low severity according to our Security Policy.
The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
AES OCB fails to encrypt some bytes
A flaw was found in OpenSSL. The crehash script does not properly sanitize shell meta-characters to prevent command injection. Some operating systems distribute this script in a manner where it is automatically executed. This flaw allows an attacker to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the script on these operating systems.
Applications that use the functions DHcheck(), DHcheckex() or EVPPKEYparamcheck() to check a DH key or DH parameters may experience long delays. Where the key or parameters that are being checked have been obtained from an untrusted source this may lead to a Denial of Service.
Also vulnerable are the OpenSSL dhparam and pkeyparam command line applications when using the "-check" option.
The OpenSSL SSL/TLS implementation is not affected by this issue.
The OpenSSL 3.0 and 3.1 FIPS providers are not affected by this issue.
OpenSSL 3.1, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/07/19/4 http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/07/19/5 http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/07/19/6 https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=1fa20cf2f506113c761777127a38bce5068740eb https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=8780a896543a654e757db1b9396383f9d8095528 https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=9a0a4d3c1e7138915563c0df4fe6a3f9377b839c https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=fc9867c1e03c22ebf56943be205202e576aabf23 https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv/20230719.txt
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256
OpenSSL Security Advisory [31st July 2023] ==========================================
Excessive time spent checking DH q parameter value (CVE-2023-3817) ==================================================================
Severity: Low
Issue summary: Checking excessively long DH keys or parameters may be very slow.
Impact summary: Applications that use the functions DHcheck(), DHcheckex() or EVPPKEYparamcheck() to check a DH key or DH parameters may experience long delays. Where the key or parameters that are being checked have been obtained from an untrusted source this may lead to a Denial of Service.
The function DHcheck() performs various checks on DH parameters. After fixing CVE-2023-3446 it was discovered that a large q parameter value can also trigger an overly long computation during some of these checks. A correct q value, if present, cannot be larger than the modulus p parameter, thus it is unnecessary to perform these checks if q is larger than p.
An application that calls DHcheck() and supplies a key or parameters obtained from an untrusted source could be vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack.
The function DHcheck() is itself called by a number of other OpenSSL functions. An application calling any of those other functions may similarly be affected. The other functions affected by this are DHcheckex() and EVPPKEYparamcheck().
Also vulnerable are the OpenSSL dhparam and pkeyparam command line applications when using the "-check" option.
The OpenSSL SSL/TLS implementation is not affected by this issue.
The OpenSSL 3.0 and 3.1 FIPS providers are not affected by this issue.
OpenSSL 3.1, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.
Due to the low severity of this issue we are not issuing new releases of OpenSSL at this time. The fix will be included in the next releases when they become available. The fix is also available in commit 6a1eb62c2 (for 3.1), commit 9002fd073 (for 3.0) and commit 91ddeba0f (for 1.1.1) in the OpenSSL git repository. It is available to premium support customer in commit 869ad69a (for 1.0.2).
This issue was reported on 20th July 2023 by Bernd Edlinger. The fix was developed by Tomas Mraz.
General Advisory Notes ======================
URL for this Security Advisory: https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv/20230731.txt
Note: the online version of the advisory may be updated with additional details over time.
For details of OpenSSL severity classifications please see: https://www.openssl.org/policies/secpolicy.html
OpenSSL 1.1.1 will reach end-of-life on 2023-09-11. After that date security fixes for 1.1.1 will only be available to premium support customers. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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Excessive time spent in DH check / generation with large Q parameter value
A flaw was found in OpenSSL. The issue in CVE-2022-1292 did not find other places in the crehash script where it possibly passed the file names of certificates being hashed to a command executed through the shell. Some operating systems distribute this script in a manner where it is automatically executed. On these operating systems, this flaw allows an attacker to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the script.
In situations where an attacker receives automated notification of the ...
Last updated 25 August 2025
ECDSA remote timing attack
Issue summary: Processing some specially crafted ASN.1 object identifiers or data containing them may be very slow.
Impact summary: Applications that use OBJobj2txt() directly, or use any of the OpenSSL subsystems OCSP, PKCS7/SMIME, CMS, CMP/CRMF or TS with no message size limit may experience notable to very long delays when processing those messages, which may lead to a Denial of Service.
A security vulnerability has been identified in all supported versions
of OpenSSL related to the verification of X.509 certificate chains that include policy constraints. Attackers may be able to exploit this vulnerability by creating a malicious certificate chain that triggers exponential use of computational resources, leading to a denial-of-service (DoS) attack on affected systems.
Policy processing is disabled by default but can be enabled by passing the -policy' argument to the command line utilities or by calling the X509VERIFYPARAMset1policies()' function.
Applications that use a non-default option when verifying certificates may be vulnerable to an attack from a malicious CA to circumvent certain checks.
Invalid certificate policies in leaf certificates are silently ignored by OpenSSL and other certificate policy checks are skipped for that certificate. A malicious CA could use this to deliberately assert invalid certificate policies in order to circumvent policy checking on the certificate altogether.
Policy processing is disabled by default but can be enabled by passing the -policy' argument to the command line utilities or by calling the X509VERIFYPARAMset1policies()' function.
Certificate policy check not enabled
A timing based side channel exists in the OpenSSL RSA Decryption implementation which could be sufficient to recover a plaintext across a network in a Bleichenbacher style attack. To achieve a successful decryption an attacker would have to be able to send a very large number of trial messages for decryption. The vulnerability affects all RSA padding modes: PKCS#1 v1.5, RSA-OEAP and RSASVE.
For example, in a TLS connection, RSA is commonly used by a client to send an encrypted pre-master secret to the server. An attacker that had observed a genuine connection between a client and a server could use this flaw to send trial messages to the server and record the time taken to process them. After a sufficiently large number of messages the attacker could recover the pre-master secret used for the original connection and thus be able to decrypt the application data sent over that connection.