A stack buffer overflow may lead to a crash, causing Denial of Service, or potentially remote code execution.

When parsing CMS AuthEnvelopedData structures that use AEAD ciphers such as AES-GCM, the IV (Initialization Vector) encoded in the ASN.1 parameters is copied into a fixed-size stack buffer without verifying that its length fits the destination. An attacker can supply a crafted CMS message with an oversized IV, causing a stack-based out-of-bounds write before any authentication or tag verification occurs.

Applications and services that parse untrusted CMS or PKCS#7 content using AEAD ciphers (e.g., S/MIME AuthEnvelopedData with AES-GCM) are vulnerable. Because the overflow occurs prior to authentication, no valid key material is required to trigger it. While exploitability to remote code execution depends on platform and toolchain mitigations, the stack-based write primitive represents a severe risk.

The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the CMS implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are vulnerable to this issue.

OpenSSL 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are not affected by this issue.

OpenSSL 3.6 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.6.1.

OpenSSL 3.5 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.5.5.

OpenSSL 3.4 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.4.4.

OpenSSL 3.3 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.3.6.

OpenSSL 3.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.0.19.

Heap Buffer Overflow in Hexadecimal Conversion

A flaw was found in OpenSSL. OpenSSL CMP response validation passed an unexpected response sender distinguished name directly as the format string to ERRraisedata().

A malicious or intercepted CMP endpoint can crash a CMP client that enforces an expected sender or uses a pinned server certificate whose subject becomes the default expected sender.

When validating a received CMP message, osslcmpmsgcheckupdate() converts the peer-supplied sender distinguished name with X509NAMEoneline() and passes it directly as the format argument to ERRraisedata(). Percent characters survive the conversion, so a sender DN such as "CN=%s%n" reaches BIOvsnprintf() as an attacker-controlled format string with no matching variadic arguments. This path is only reached when the caller configures an expected sender or pins a server certificate, which is the normal configuration for a CMP client validating server responses.

Since the attacker controls the format string but none of the variadic arguments, such specifiers as %s and %n dereference or write through unrelated stack contents and crash the client. The reliable consequence is a denial of service, when the response comes from a malicious or intercepted CMP endpoint. There is no controlled memory write, arbitrary-address read, or reliable path to remote code execution.

No FIPS modules are affected by this issue, as the CMP protocol implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

OpenSSL 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, and 3.4 are vulnerable to this issue. OpenSSL 3.0, 1.1.1, and 1.0.2 are not affected by this issue. OpenSSL 4.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 4.0.2. OpenSSL 3.6 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.6.4. OpenSSL 3.5 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.5.8. OpenSSL 3.4 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.4.7.

CMS AuthEnvelopedData Processing May Accept Forged Messages

Issue summary: ChaCha20-Poly1305 and AES-OCB decryption with an empty ciphertext can report success without verifying the supplied authentication tag when the operation is finalized by calling the EVPCipher() function.

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.

DTLS Retransmits Handshake Messages From a Stale Buffer Offset

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: A signed integer overflow when sizing the destination buffer for Unicode output in ASN1mbstringncopy() can lead to a heap buffer overflow.

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: 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: An OpenSSL TLS 1.3 server may fail to negotiate the expected preferred key exchange group when its key exchange group configuration includes the default by using the 'DEFAULT' keyword.

Impact summary: A less preferred key exchange may be used even when a more preferred group is supported by both client and server, if the group was not included among the client's initial predicated keyshares. This will sometimes be the case with the new hybrid post-quantum groups, if the client chooses to defer their use until specifically requested by the server.

If an OpenSSL TLS 1.3 server's configuration uses the 'DEFAULT' keyword to interpolate the built-in default group list into its own configuration, perhaps adding or removing specific elements, then an implementation defect causes the 'DEFAULT' list to lose its 'tuple' structure, and all server-supported groups were treated as a single sufficiently secure 'tuple', with the server not sending a Hello Retry Request (HRR) even when a group in a more preferred tuple was mutually supported.

As a result, the client and server might fail to negotiate a mutually supported post-quantum key agreement group, such as 'X25519MLKEM768', if the client's configuration results in only 'classical' groups (such as 'X25519' being the only ones in the client's initial keyshare prediction).

OpenSSL 3.5 and later support a new syntax for selecting the most preferred TLS 1.3 key agreement group on TLS servers. The old syntax had a single 'flat' list of groups, and treated all the supported groups as sufficiently secure. If any of the keyshares predicted by the client were supported by the server the most preferred among these was selected, even if other groups supported by the client, but not included in the list of predicted keyshares would have been more preferred, if included.

The new syntax partitions the groups into distinct 'tuples' of roughly equivalent security. Within each tuple the most preferred group included among the client's predicted keyshares is chosen, but if the client supports a group from a more preferred tuple, but did not predict any corresponding keyshares, the server will ask the client to retry the ClientHello (by issuing a Hello Retry Request or HRR) with the most preferred mutually supported group.

The above works as expected when the server's configuration uses the built-in default group list, or explicitly defines its own list by directly defining the various desired groups and group 'tuples'.

No OpenSSL FIPS modules are affected by this issue, the code in question lies outside the FIPS boundary.

OpenSSL 3.6 and 3.5 are vulnerable to this issue.

OpenSSL 3.6 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.6.2 once it is released. OpenSSL 3.5 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.5.6 once it is released.

OpenSSL 3.4, 3.3, 3.0, 1.0.2 and 1.1.1 are not affected by this issue.

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.

Incorrect Failure Handling in RSA KEM RSASVE Encapsulation

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.

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: Receiving a QUIC initial packet with an invalid token may trigger a NULL pointer dereference in the OpenSSL QUIC server with address validation disabled.

Impact summary: NULL pointer dereference typically causes abnormal termination of the affected QUIC server process and a Denial of Service.

If the address validation is disabled in the OpenSSL QUIC server implementation, an attacker can crash the server by sending an initial packet with an invalid or expired token.

By default, the client address validation is enabled in the OpenSSL QUIC server implementation, which makes the default configuration not vulnerable to this issue. However if the SSLLISTENERFLAGNOVALIDATE is used with the SSLnewlistener() call, the address validation is disabled making the vulnerable code reachable.

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.

Issue summary: Remote peer may exhaust heap memory of the QUIC server or client by flooding it with packets containing PATHCHALLENGE frames.

Impact summary: A malicious remote peer can cause an unbounded memory allocation which can lead to an abnormal termination of the application acting as a QUIC client or server and a Denial of Service.

A remote peer may exhaust heap memory by flooding the local QUIC stack with PATHCHALLENGE frames. The local QUIC stack allocates a PATHRESPONSE frame for every PATHCHALLENGE it receives. The allocated PATHRESPONSE frame gets freed only when the remote peer acknowledges reception of the PATHRESPONSE frame which will not be done by a malicious peer.

The FIPS modules in 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, and 3.0 are not affected by this issue. The QUIC stack is outside of OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

Heap Buffer Over-read in ASN.1 Content Parsing

AES-OCB IV Ignored on EVPCipher() Path

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: When an OpenSSL QUIC server (Listener SSL object) processes valid QUIC Initial packets for unknown destination connection IDs, it can allocate and queue new incoming channels without enforcing any limit.

A flaw was found in OpenSSL. In a server or client configuration with RFC7250 Raw Public Keys (RPKs) enabled, and only the private key (with no associated certificate) configured locally, a NULL pointer dereference may occur when the remote peer solicits raw public keys and also sends the typically omitted "signaturealgorithmscert" TLS extension.

The impact is limited to a possible Denial of Service as a result of an application abort, no data disclosure or remote command execution are possible.

While a passing comment in sample code in the documentation suggests that key-only RPK configurations are supported, the best-practice RPK configuration is to always configure a corresponding certificate (possibly self-signed or signed by any convenient CA).

When the private key is configured along with a matching certificate, the "signaturealgorithmscert" extension is handled reliably even without the fix, and peer clients or servers that don't support raw public keys may be able to complete a TLS connection by pinning or verifying the corresponding certificate or its public key.

Deployments that prefer to configure just a private key with no certificate need to upgrade to an updated release as noted below.

No FIPS modules are affected by this issue, as the SSL protocol implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

OpenSSL 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, and 3.4 are vulnerable to this issue. OpenSSL 3.0, 1.1.1, and 1.0.2 are not affected by this issue. OpenSSL 4.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 4.0.2. OpenSSL 3.6 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.6.4. OpenSSL 3.5 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.5.8. OpenSSL 3.4 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.4.7.

A flaw was found in OpenSSL. OpenSSL CMS decryption sizes the key-unwrap output buffer based on querying the unwrapped key size, but the AES-WRAP-PAD unwrap primitive can write and cleanse more bytes than that query reports, causing an 8-byte out-of-bounds heap write.

An attacker who supplies a crafted CMS message can trigger a deterministic 8-byte out-of-bounds heap write when the victim decrypts it with CMSdecrypt(), corrupting the heap and typically resulting in a Denial of Service.

The key-wrap OID is potentially attacker-controlled on the wire. CMS unwrapping allows both id-aesNNN-wrap-pad and id-aesNNN-wrap ciphers. An attacker can take a legitimate message and change a single OID byte to select the padded variant while leaving the message otherwise valid. Since the unwrap key is derived from the recipient's private operation (ECDH key agreement or ML-KEM decapsulation), the RFC 5649 integrity check cannot pass, and the decryption fails with integrity failure.

The write is a fixed-size (8-byte), fixed-value (zero) heap overflow immediately past the allocation, requires no special configuration, and is reachable from the public CMSdecrypt() function. The consequence is a heap corruption leading to a Denial of Service. The fix in the CMS code sizes the unwrap output buffer for the worst case so a failed unwrap cannot write past the allocation.

As the CMS code lives outside the FIPS module boundary, no FIPS modules are affected by this CVE.

OpenSSL 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.0, and 1.1.1 are vulnerable to this issue. OpenSSL 1.0.2 is not affected by this issue. OpenSSL 4.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 4.0.2. OpenSSL 3.6 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.6.4. OpenSSL 3.5 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.5.8. OpenSSL 3.4 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.4.7. OpenSSL 3.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.0.22.

Premium support customers only: OpenSSL 1.1.1 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.1.1zi.

A flaw was found in OpenSSL. QUIC server may double free QRX (QUIC record layer RX) object when channel creation fails for initial packet. Double free leads to heap corruption, which typically results in termination of QUIC server process, leading to Denial of Service. There is so far no evidence that this double free is exploitable for remote code execution, thus it is considered highly improbable.

In order to validate initial packet, OpenSSL QUIC stack default packet handler (portdefaultpackethandler()) creates a so-called QRX object. If the initial packet validates successfully with QRX object, the default packet handler proceeds to channel (connection object) creation. The QRX object used for packet validation is passed to portbindchannel(), so it becomes part of the newly created connection. If portbindchannel() fails, then it also frees the QRX object. Once portbindchannel() returns, the portdefaultpackethandler() detects the failure and proceeds to the error branch, where the same QRX object is freed for the second time.

The failure in portbindchannel() function can be induced with a relatively low effort by a malformed (non RFC 9000 compliant) INITIAL packet. If the packet carries DCID (destination connection ID) which is shorter than 8 bytes, then portbindchannel() jumps to the error path after osslquiclcidmenrolodcid() detects that the DCID has invalid length.

The FIPS module is not affected, as the QUIC implementation is outside of the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

OpenSSL 4.0, 3.6, and 3.5 are vulnerable to this issue. OpenSSL 3.4, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are not affected by this issue. OpenSSL 4.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 4.0.2. OpenSSL 3.6 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.6.4. OpenSSL 3.5 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.5.8.

A flaw was found in OpenSSL. OpenSSL CMP password based protection verification only checks whether the protectionAlg parameter was not NULL and not its ASN.1 type, before treating it as a PBMParameter. A crafted message can contain a parameter of a different type, which is then dereferenced as an invalid pointer.

A remote, unauthenticated attacker can crash an application acting as a CMP server that accepts PBM-protected messages, or a CMP client talking to a malicious or intercepted CMP server, resulting in a Denial of Service.

When verifying the password-based MAC protection of a CMP message, OpenSSL library reads the protectionAlg algorithm parameter with X509ALGORget0(), which returns both the parameter type and its value pointer. The value is then cast to an ASN1STRING and treated as the expected PBMParameter after only checking that pointer is not NULL. The parameter type returned by X509ALGORget0() was never consulted.

This happens during protection verification, before any MAC is computed, so no knowledge of the PBM shared secret is required; the only precondition is that PBM verification is reachable. On the server side this is reached from OSSLCMPSRVprocessrequest() for any application that stands up a CMP server accepting PBM-protected messages, and on the client side from CMP response validation against a malicious or on-path (MITM) server. The reliable consequence is a denial of service; there is no memory disclosure, no controlled memory write, and no path to code execution. CMP is a specialized feature that an application must explicitly enable.

As the CMP code lives outside the FIPS module boundary, no FIPS modules are affected by this CVE.

OpenSSL 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.0 are vulnerable to this issue. OpenSSL 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are not affected by this issue. OpenSSL 4.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 4.0.2. OpenSSL 3.6 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.6.4. OpenSSL 3.5 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.5.8. OpenSSL 3.4 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.4.7. OpenSSL 3.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.0.22.

A flaw was found in OpenSSL. When OpenSSL processes QUIC traffic from a peer that repeatedly sends ack-eliciting packets while not acknowledging ACK-only responses, the QUIC stack can retain ACK-only packet metadata for the lifetime of the connection.

A remote peer that can complete a QUIC handshake can cause connection-scoped memory growth which may lead to Denial of Service through memory exhaustion, especially with sustained traffic or many concurrent QUIC connections.

When the OpenSSL QUIC stack sends an ACK-only packet, there is no requirement by the QUIC protocol that the peer will acknowledge that ACK-only packet (i.e. it is itself not ack-eliciting). However, the OpenSSL implementation stores the metadata about the ACK frames regardless. In and of itself that's ok, but if a malicious peer establishes a connection, and then drives the connection such that ACK-only packets are forced from the OpenSSL implementation peer (i.e., by sending numerous PING frames), and then withholding any subsequent acks for ack-eliciting data, like legitimate data, said malicious peer can force inappropriate memory growth on the OpenSSL peer, potentially leading to a Denial of Service.

The fix is to ensure that we account for the transmission of the ACK-only packet in the packet histories high and low watermark without actually storing the ACK-only packet metadata itself.

The OpenSSL FIPS module is not affected as the QUIC code is outside the FIPS module boundary.

OpenSSL 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, and 3.4 are vulnerable to this issue. OpenSSL 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are not affected by this issue. OpenSSL 4.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 4.0.2. OpenSSL 3.6 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.6.4. OpenSSL 3.5 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.5.8. OpenSSL 3.4 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.4.7.

A flaw was found in OpenSSL. Receiving a DTLS record for a future epoch while a handshake is in progress causes OpenSSL to buffer far more memory than the record itself requires.

A peer can use a small amount of network traffic to make an OpenSSL DTLS endpoint retain a disproportionately large amount of memory, which may lead to a Denial of Service.

While a DTLS handshake is in progress, a peer may legitimately have already moved on to the next epoch (for example, having sent its ChangeCipherSpec and Finished messages) before the local endpoint has processed the same transition, typically because of reordering on the underlying UDP transport. OpenSSL buffers such early records so that they can be processed once the local endpoint catches up.

Buffering a record currently retains the entire read buffer it arrived in, which is sized to hold the largest possible DTLS record (around 16 kilobytes), rather than just the bytes that make up the record itself. Up to 100 such records may be buffered per connection. As a result, a peer that sends a stream of small forged records claiming to belong to the next epoch can cause an OpenSSL DTLS endpoint to retain around 1.7 megabytes of memory, despite sending only a small fraction of that amount of data over the network.

An attacker therefore gains a memory amplification factor of around 1200, and can multiply the effect across as many associations as it is able to open, making this a remote memory exhaustion Denial of Service risk for DTLS servers. Since the memory retained per connection remains bounded, and any limit an application already places on the number of concurrent associations also bounds the total exposure, this issue has been assessed as Low severity.

No FIPS modules are 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 4.0.2. OpenSSL 3.6 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.6.4. OpenSSL 3.5 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.5.8. OpenSSL 3.4 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.4.7. OpenSSL 3.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.0.22.

Premium support customers only: OpenSSL 1.1.1 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.1.1zi. OpenSSL 1.0.2 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.2zr.

Issue summary: QUIC process may keep memory for QUIC packet buffer for much longer period than necessary.

Issue summary: A TLS server that calls SSLsetSSLCTX() to switch a connection to a different SSLCTX part way through a handshake may access memory beyond the end of an internal array if the replacement context knows about more provider signature algorithms than the context the connection was created from. Applications which never call SSLsetSSLCTX() are not affected.